(I know it should be called "The Centenarian" but he soldiered through the century so I called him the CENTURION.)

I was born in 1900. Victoria was queen.
The first of seven children; only three made sweet sixteen.
It was hard but it was happy. It was roses around the door,
'Till we all saluted father as he went of to the war.
I was tea boy in the factory the day the news arrived
Making mother one more widow but together we survived.

CHORUS: Now the century is over. I watched it wax and wane
And as I recall it, all in all, it’s a life I’d live again.

At 18 I was courting. Mary filled my heart with pride.
20 saw us married, stepping out there side by side.
The work was never easy but we did it day by day,
Saving halfpennies and farthings till we'd ten pounds put away.
Then the slump took jobs and savings and I had a lot of time,
So I learned the old mouth organ --“Buddy, can you spare a dime?” CHORUS

With 2 sons fast a-growing, 1925,
Mary wanted so a daughter, but her health it didn't thrive.
She died that distant summer, but our daughter made it through,
Until the influenza took her at the age of two.
In the 30's I was busy, like all other folk, deprived.
Picking coal from off the slagheaps, my two sons and me survived. CHORUS

'36 and I met Lucy. We were married in the spring.
The boys were new apprenticed, and we didn't fear a thing.
It was hard but it was happy. It was roses around the door,
Till we both saluted my sons as they went off to the war.
I lost one in the navy, a convoy in the med.
Once again for king and country our name numbered with the dead. CHORUS

The other lad was lucky, and in 1945,
Me and Lucy lit a candle, giving thanks he was alive.
I turned 50 then and wondered what the future held in store.
I'd work on to the pension if we all avoided war.
Soon my son walked down the aisle with a sweet girl as his bride.
She made me think of Mary as she stood there by his side. CHORUS

I retired in the 60's to a bungalow downtown,
Did the gardening with Lucy till the years just wore her down.
I lost her then with sorrow, but remember her with joy,
And I’ll take her flowers tomorrow when I go there with the boy,
For he is a fine great grandson, wears his cap the wrong way round,
And what I bought with a farthing seems to cost the kid a pound.

And he asks me have I really lived the century?
And I wink and whisper "really" and that's good enough for me.

I was born in 1900. Victoria was queen.
The first of seven children; only three made sweet sixteen.