Kids played freely in the street

Eating Spam instead of meat

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Gossiping over the garden fence

You could buy a week’s shopping with half-a-pence

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

You knew the name of the people next door

All cosy in the shelter during the war

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Nee-naw nee-naw, bobbies on the beat

All the powdered egg that you could eat

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Marbles, Hopscotch, conkers and Jacks

Ration books, Woodbines and wool anthrax

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Scout leaders and headmasters

Train robberies and air disasters

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Tripe, duffle coats and scuffed knees

Budgies, coal mines and lung disease

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

No problems, no issues and no worries

The Krays, The Richardsons and Vesta curries

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

The Beatles, The Kinks and The Troggs

Teddy Boys, Mods and Golliwogs

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Everything was going well

Morris Minors and Mary Bell

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

No bad at all, only good

Enoch Powell, Rivers Of Blood

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Sunday Roasts, milkmen and “good mornings”

Bloody Friday, The IRA and coded warnings

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Cheap gas prices, leaving the cooker on

John Haigh, John Christie and Bible John

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Dantron, Thalidomide and Panadol

The Enigma Machine and Stilboestrol

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

Homosexual incarcerations and posthumous pardons

Asbestos exposure and back street abortions

Back when you could leave your front door unlocked

 

When a man was a man and a woman was a lady

Myra Hindley and Ian Brady

Wasn’t it great when you could leave your front door unlocked?