Voices from June 1944: The Wartime Sing-Along Program Hidden in Mom's treasure chest

Holding a piece of a loved one’s past in your hands is a uniquely touching experience. Recently, among my mother’s keepsakes, I noticed a set of yellowed, typewriter-printed pages. Since Mum was born in 1924 (and almost 40 when she had me), I realized with a sudden thrill that she was just a 19-year-old girl when she went to these wartime sing-alongs.

It wasn't a formal document or a fancy souvenir, but a simple paper leaflet from the OK Bazaars Tea Lounge in Johannesburg, dated June 20, 1944.

At first glance, it’s a charming artifact of everyday life: an advertisement on the cover for "Kenna Coffee" alongside a hand-drawn teacup, proudly declaring that the venue serves only Kenna Coffee. But turning the pages reveals something much more special—a window into the human spirit during the dark days of the Second World War.

Music as a Medicine for the Soul

The leaflet contains lyrics for a "Sing Song Community Program"—a weekly sing-along event hosted at the OK Bazaars tearoom. Down in the bottom corner of the cover, a small instruction reads: “Collect these programmes & compile your own album.”

Imagine the scene in June 1944: just two weeks after the D-Day landings in Europe, servicemen on leave and local families gathered around tearoom tables in Johannesburg, clutching these mimeographed sheets. Over cups of coffee, they sang together to keep their spirits high.

The program was divided into "Old Songs" and "New Songs":

• The Old Favorites: Nostalgic tunes like "The Honeysuckle and the Bee" (1901) and British music hall classics like "Ship A-Hoy!" (All the Nice Girls Love a Sailor). They also sang "Lambeth Walk" from the 1937 musical Me and My Girl—a lively song and dance craze that became an iconic morale booster across the Commonwealth during the war years.

• The New Hits: Sentimental standards of the 1940s like "Yours" (popularized by Vera Lynn, the beloved "Forces' Sweetheart"), Irving Berlin’s "Always", and Bing Crosby's "Mexicali Rose". Songs about devotion, distant shores, and coming home—lyrics that must have hit very close to home for anyone with a sweetheart, son, or brother serving overseas.

A Precious Paper Bridge

It’s easy to read about World War II in history books, focusing on dates and military strategies. But holding this frail little program brings the lived experience down to a wonderfully human level. It reminds us that even during global turmoil, people still sought out warmth, community, music, and a good cup of coffee.

Finding this tucked away in Mum’s keepsakes felt like a bridge straight back to a Johannesburg tearoom in 1944. It’s a gentle reminder of the resilience of that generation—and how something as simple as a community sing-along could light up a wartime afternoon.

Echoes of Eloff Street

By the time we were visiting the OK Bazaars in Eloff Street, the war was long over, and that era felt world's away. I doubt whether they continued those sing-alongs, but I still have vague memories of the tea room and that grand old lift. You could never forget the lift man in his sharp uniform, manually stopping at each floor and announcing what awaited you: "Third floor... Ladies' undergarments..."

To hold this leaflet now is to realize that long before I was riding those lifts, my mother was sitting right there in 1944, a teenager with her whole life ahead of her, singing along to the hits of the day.