As war planes flew overhead and loved ones faced the legalised murder of war, Geraldo and his world famous dance band took to the crackling airwaves with We All Must Stick Together.
The sheet music sold in millions across the world and the song went across the dance halls of war-torn Britain, almost like a virus…
And in so many ways it reflects how people throughout the world are feeling today.
Having grown up in World War II where the government unceremoniously dragged down all your wrought iron railings for the war effort, put your children on a train with a gas mask round their necks and a tag to say who they were. They also took all the dads and granddads and sons and sent them out to fight, probably to get killed. Obviously there are many books to be written about those times, but here we are in a situation where, seventy-five years later, we are seeing a situation with similarities.
Government is increasing taking over and making difficult decisions. And now, as then, we are reluctantly accepting the necessity. We need such leadership.
One thing I didn’t see much of until the other day, however, was the war time spirit. Down any street way back then people were as one family, helping the old folks and the children in their nightclothes down to the Anderson shelter in the gardens as the planes dropped bombs; queuing up for food, during the ‘rationing’, buying in for the house bound; Comforting the bereaved and treating all the children in the neighbourhood as precious as their own.
Why no wartime spirit? I was looking at my local town’s Facebook where people arrange for litter picking and tidying the park, slag off the councillors and argue the politics. There it was, the spirit. Who, they were asking, will volunteer to help those who are self isolating who can’t get their shopping. Or to telephone those who are becoming lonely and frightened as they sit in their homes alone and would love to chat. The response was immediate, from all over Greater Manchester. I was filled with pride; irrational maybe, but I was taken back to those days so long ago.
It was even better when I found out on Google that this organized volunteering is happening all over England. All over, I expect, the UK – and the world.
And up and down the streets individuals are putting notes through their neighbours’ doors offering to help in any way they can.
We, as we sit and read, watch interminable television, and those of us who are young and active but have to self-isolate because of underlying health problems, are facing maybe months of frustration. Soon the schools will close and parents will be facing months of re-organizing their lives.
But knowing that we are part of a new ‘family’ which cares and understands will keep us from feeling quite so isolated.
Maybe we are temporarily saying goodbye to the hand shake and the hug but there is a much more significant and lasting way of bonding. The war time spirit has arrived.
We know what it’s all about, and yes we ALL need pull together once more… we are at war!
Dorrie Jane Bridge
