1947

I was born in the year 1947, two years after WW2 A year before the NHS opened its wide umbrella There were no signs or portents in the sky Though ‘Oh what a beautiful morning' played on the nursing home radio That year the Cold War started, lasting for four decades My generation of Baby Boomers lived under the fear of nuclear war Relatives came home from their tea plantations Bell Laboratories invents the transistor. The first mobile phone was created. Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, Smashed into the teeth of a reef at Raroia Hillary Clinton, David Bowie, Elton John were born that year In the USA the sound barrier was broken Walter Morrison invented the Frisbee. Artificial Intelligence was created by Alan Turing Who was persecuted for the fact of being gay In Hungary, Denis Gabor invented the hologram The Diary of Anne Frank was published The CIA was established The first of the Dead Sea Scrolls was found The first Edinburgh International Festival was held Princess Elizabeth married her Duke at Westminster Abbey Their Royal wedding cake was 9 feet high Sir Norman Hartnell designed the wedding gown The dress was ivory, with 10,000 seed pearls. There were 2000 guests invited to the ceremony The couple received 10,000 telegrams And more than 2500 gifts from around the world My parents had no cd. No fridge. No supermarket. No TV They warmed the house with coal The world lived in a crackling Bakelite radio Mother dried clothes on a pulley Washed clothes on a wash board Rinsed them out with a mangle We dined on skink, on spall, on spam With bread & butter pudding Father shot hare and pheasant Relatives gave us sacks of tatties Mother darned socks, turned collars Ran up clothes on a Singer sewing machine It's a Wonderful Life was playing in the cinemas There was a huge national post war debt There was rationing, queueing for food, austerity There was smog, croup, chilblains in Britain But in Paris Edith Piaf sang La Vie En Rose As only a sparrow could.