John From Wonthaggi

John had a happy childhood in Wonthaggi and he seems very happy to recall
Cape Paterson where he often played beach cricket and the Thaggi Oval where he played football
He swam and frolicked in the sea in summer and his young years were free of any care
But like many others Melbourne to him beckoned and he was destined to live his life there.

His father was a hard working coal miner but he seemed young to die at fifty three
And his mother is still living in Wonthaggi she's now seventy five though healthy and carefree
With her friends she plays bowls as well as bridge and bingo and life he says she thoroughly enjoy
She has lived all of her years in Wonthaggi and in her own home town perhaps she'll die.

He drives to Wonthaggi once a month to visit his mother though not many people live there now that he know
When he was young he had so many friends there but on looking back that seems so long ago
Though he still know a few there from his young days and in the Workmen's Club with them have a few beers
Like him most of his school friends living elsewhere and he has not laid eyes on them for years.

Though from the former mining town in South West Gippsland he only lives a couple of hours away
He'll never again live in old Wonthaggi in Heidelberg he's happy for to stay
Still he has good memories of his happy boyhood and he always feels happy to recall
His old home town where he grew into manhood and good memories of a happy youth the best of all

He said he spent his young years in Wonthaggi and at nineteen he left in nineteen sixty four
And though he has often returned for a visit he says he'd never live there anymore
He's happy now in Heidelberg near Melbourne where he lives with his wife and there they raised their family
A two hour drive from where he spent his boyhood the old mining town seven K's from the sea.