It All Began With A Bang.

Now here's something to make you sing
To make your heartstrings twang,
It is a story of young love,
That started with a bang.
Now by "a bang" I don't mean
What a lot of you are thinking,
I simply mean it started well
One night when Fred was out drinking.

He was in his local rub a dub dub,
"The Coney's Burrow" was its name,
And a lot of blokes who used the pub
Simply went to have a game
Of dominoes or darts or cards,
Whatever took their fancy,
Or chatting up the landlord's wife,
A brassy blonde called Nancy.

Other girls were rarely seen
To enter into the place
It was in a tiny little village
Hidden from the rest of our race.
It was in a time when history
Was being written in the skies
By lots of warring aeroplanes
Buzzing round like flies,

A time when most young men and girls
Were all away doing their bit,
But poor young Fred was left behind,
They said he lacked the wit.
But he was fine behind a plough
On his family's farm
Where he could help win the war,
Without coming to any harm.

So time passed by so slow for Fred
Each day merging with another
He wished he could meet a nice girl
With a smile just like his mother
He did not want to live all his life
Ploughing a lonely furrow
He wanted to find himself a wife
That's why he went to the "Burrow".

One Friday night whilst having a pint
There was a roaring from outside
They all rushed out to see what it was,
And poor Fred nearly died,
A great big Heinkel bomber
was falling injured from the sky
trailing smoke and flames behind
As it spiralled down to die.

It crashed into a farmhouse
On the far side of the wood
And everyone ran to see
If they could do anyone any good.
The scene which lay in front of them
Was one of sheer destruction
And there was no one there just then
To give orders or instructions,

So Fred he took it on himself,
No one told him what to do,
To run into the flaming ruins
His instincts told him to.
He ran up some stairs where he heard
A cry for help from in a room
He crashed through the door and looked around,
And in the flickering smokey gloom,

The little cry he heard again
This time it sounded more manic
He shouted "I am here for you,
You'll be fine so please don't panic."
And then he saw smallish hand
Waving from under a bed
He reached down and grabbed hold of it and
The sweet little voice then said,

"Oh thank you , thank you you brave soul
You risked your life for me,
If you'd not come in through the fire
Then pretty soon I'd be
In a situation much more dire
Than the one I now can see."
" We must go now he said to her,
Quickly we must flee,

If we are to live another day
Then like lightning we must be."
He picked her up and carried her
Out from that smoke filled room
Onto and down the burning stair
Then through flames and scenes of doom,
Out into the crisp cool air
Of the English Autumn night

And he set her down upon the ground
And was astonished by the sight,
This vision of beauty it did astound,
He stood rooted to the spot
He stammered "y you'll bbbe alright now."
And that's as far as he got
She put her finger to his lips
And gently she said "shush

We have all our lives in front of us
So there's no need to rush."
They were married in the village church
Six months after their fateful meeting
The crowds came from miles around
And the guests filled all the seating
Standing room outside many more found
Was the order of the day,

And the vicar blessed and the choir sang
And everyone knelt to pray
That this union would last and never end
Until their final day.
That is how the story ends
They remained in love for life,
And Fred always thanked that bomber
For finding him a wife.

Tom Higgins 05/05/2014