We Were Good People

We Were Good People - Maria Dunn

I was an ordinary mother in 1932

My husband out of work and more worries here than food

I was weary with asking the man for relief

Feeling like a beggar being treated like a thief

So when word of a protest started going round

I bundled my boys for the long walk downtown

And bless them they didn't make a peep about the cold

One was only 5 and the other 9 years old

We were good people gathered in the square

It wasn't ease and comfort had driven us there

Well the air was almost festive with Christmas trees in view

But as we turned to leave the square and March the Avenue

A sound I'd never heard before turned my heart to lead

The sound of a billy club cracking open heads

And I'd always taught my sons we were safe around police

But when they charged on horses but I dragged us off the street

It made me so angry they'd endanger children too

In silencing the voices of 1932

We were good people gathered in the square

It wasn't ease and comfort had driven us there

But they treated us like criminals for showing our despair

Oh I remember well this Bloody Tuesday

Where was the government who wouldn't let us starve

Who wouldn't take the farmer's land who knew we worked so hard

We the people were just scraping by for our daily bread

We had voted for the cowards and away they turned their heads

Now I've read it in the paper this supposed "Hunger March"

Was the scheme of Reds they said our hunger was a farce

I don't care what they say for me it did ring true

An ordinary mother in 1932

We were good people gathered in the square

It wasn't ease and comfort had driven us there

But they treated us like criminals for showing our despair

Oh I remember well this Bloody Tuesday

I remember well this Bloody Tuesday