Our boys came back from Vietnam
No welcome home for them
Instead abuse was all they got
For shame, Australia, shame

Was in our pub that some were drinking
When people spat on them
All this for a war they fought
Where they had no choice

They served their country and gave their lives
Though many were not willing
They were conscripts not volunteers
The choice was them not given

Once again the old man stopped
And slowly shook his head
Anger mixed with sadness
Chased across his weathered face

A flask he took from inside his coat
And raised it to his lips
A sip he took then wiped his chin
Then placed it next to him

I can see what you're thinking
But I'm sorry to say
I don't drink spirits
There's water in there

Now sixty nine that was a year
It was like science fiction
Man on the moon, what next
We could hardly believe it

That day in June the nation stopped
And around their TV's sitting
Watched a man called Armstrong
Walking on the moon

We held our breath, the words he spoke
The words so well remembered
We prayed the God would guide them home
And home they safely journeyed

Nowadays it's common place
For man to go to space
No-one takes much notice
Lest disaster strikes up there

For nineteen years we waited
And watched it slowly grow
One hundred million dollars
To build the Opera House

Such pomp and ceremony
When open it they did
Gleaming white on harbour's edge
No other sight like it

Seventy three the year it was
And I'd turned forty seven
Catherine left school that year
A chef she wanted to be

She entered an apprenticeship
At a restaurant we knew well
We'd been friends for a very long time
And of her they'd take good care

We watched on our new colour TV
The sacking of Gough Whitlam
Seventy five was a shameful year
A Prime Minister this way to be treated

Fraser came in power then
No truer words were spoken
Coined the phrase on many lips
Life wasn't meant to be easy

Things got harder under him
The good times were over
Less money, less work
The economy was slowing

But Mary and I did what we did
We just carried on living
Good times or bad it mattered not
As long as we had each other

Though forty one she looked the same
To me there was no difference
Twenty years of married bliss
My love burned ever brightly