Lyrics The Weekends - David Harley

The world has changed since I was born in 1902
Two World Wars have swept away the world that we once knew
Two brothers and three sisters, long dead and gone to earth
Our lives were often hard, but now the weekends are the worst

My old man died just 20 years past
His health was never good since the Kaiser had him gassed
But in the end it was cancer that carried him off so fast
I miss him all the time, and the weekends are the worst

You might say I was lucky, though we never had much cash
But we had 50-odd good years, more than I'd dare to ask
I brought up three lovely kids, though another died at birth
I miss them all a lot, and the weekends are the worst

I've a son in Melbourne, he's been there since '62
I've never seen his wife or kids, just a snapshot or two
My eldest died in the last lot, on a convoy to Murmansk
It still brings tears to my eyes, and the weekends are the worst

I've a daughter in Glasgow: she writes when she has time
But that's a long way off, and I've not seen her for a while
She's got a son in the army, just been posted to Belfast
We worry all the time, and the weekends are the worst

My friends are mostly dead, or else they've moved like me
When the street I was brought up in was pulled down in '63
Sixty years I'd lived there, child, girl and wife
Sheltered housing's not so bad but it can be a lonely life
Especially since Jim died: we weren't too bad at first
But now I'm on my own the weekends are the worst

There's the club once a week, though it's just from seven till nine
And since my fall they only fetch me down from time to time
There's my knitting and the TV, for what that might be worth
But I miss the company, and the weekends are the worst