Listen to the track:
Teaspoons of Time
Inspired by the memoirs of Vyvyen Brendon
(Verse 1)
Bread was thin and jam was rare
but Mum would cut it fair and square
We counted crumbs, we knew the cost
of buttered days the grown-ups lost
(Verse 2)
Yet games would bloom on stony ground
with skipping rhymes and seaside sound
We chalked the steps, we named the sky
as Spitfires roared and gulls flew by
(Chorus)
Wembury Bay, in rations and rhymes
we measured joy in teaspoons of time
With hand-me-down coats and knees turned brown
we made a world in a blackout town
(Verse 3)
No oranges, no second pair
of shoes to outgrow unaware
But stories marched in Dad’s warm voice
and made the air-raid walls rejoice
(Verse 4)
We mimed with sticks, we ruled with chalk
the road to Plym was just a walk
A packet saved, a smile begun
the sun still shone, though sweets were none
(Chorus)
Wembury Bay, in rations and rhymes
we stitched our days with nursery lines
With sugarless hope and cardboard crowns
we built a life in a boarded-down town
(Bridge)
Paper dolls and pantry jars
aprons looped and heel-marked floors
The wind would cry from off the sea
but we had stories, and they had me
(Final Chorus)
Wembury Bay, in rations and rhymes
each moment stored like nursery chimes
Though the world’s grown wide, I still hold tight
to blackout dreams and shared candlelight