Rheindahlen, 1968

Will served in the army thirty years
Now the end of his service nears
He'll settle down, we'll travel no more.
He knows the name he'll put on the door.
'Dunroamin's what he'll call the house.
An end to moving on for us.
That's the dream how it should have been
But very soon I'll be sixteen.
Dad's service should finish in the U.K.
With six months to plan for demob day.
But I'm preparing for G.C.E.
So moving now would be bad for me.
Staying on seemed common sense
Who could have known its consequence?
We'd spent our lives just moving on
Had no savings to buy a home.
I think if there ever was a plan
We'd all move in and live with Gran.
The trouble was she left her flat
Moved in with an aunt; so that was that.

GCE stands for General Certificate of Education. It was the exam you had to pass to stay at school beyond sixteen and potentially go on to Further education.