It was many moons ago.  I was living in London, Ontario, Canada.  I often enjoyed folk music concerts at a club called the Cuckoo’s Nest, hosted by Ian Davies.  Happily, it’s still alive and well in 2026.

Somewhere along the line, I bought a CD showcasing the music of Tranby Croft, a local group.  And I fell in love with a song … Old French Lane.

Years later, I lost the CD.  (Sigh)

More years later, I talked to Bob Cunningham, one of the founding members of the then-defunct Tranby Croft, at a Cuckoo’s Nest concert.  I told him I had a yearning to find one of their old songs.  The CD was no longer in print.

He said he would look for the lyrics for me … but that never happened.  And I never saw Bob again.

And so Old French Lane disappeared from my mind, apparently never to return.

More, more years – all the way to 2023, when I moved to Belgium.  Soon after, the song returned to my mind … a wisp of smoke from the past.  And again the sadness of something sweet that’s gone forever.

Until last fall.  I’d brought a tiny plastic bag full of USB sticks across the ocean, and I was curious to see what was on them.

One had a folder called “Music” … and there were a lot of songs, listed alphabetically.

I wonder …

I scrolled, nervously.

And there it was … Old French Lane

Would it play?  >  Yes, it would!

Last month, I copied the lyrics.  The tune was already firmly in my soul.

And soon, in early July, I will sing a long-beloved song in front of passing shoppers on the Langemunt. 

I love happy endings

***

Seven jewels lie in the channel
South of England’s shores
Where you and I once walked together
Where I’ll walk no more

Hand in hand we would go
In the sun and in the rain
Through the streets of St. Helier
Down the Old French Lane

With Jersey sunshine falling on your hair
Shines in strands of red and gold
With eyes of green like the emerald sheens
Of your ancestral home

That was so long ago
Red and gold turn silver now
But eyes of green will never change
In my memory somehow

Eyes of green will never change
In my memory somehow