Friday, 26th July, 1939
‘FOR DORIS’ — A QUIET SONG FOR THE GIRL BEHIND THE BAKERY COUNTER
Gabriel’s tender tribute reminds us that the most ordinary lives can leave the most extraordinary memories
There are people who pass through life without ever knowing how deeply they have touched those around them.
Doris Whittaker may be one of them.
For Doris, the latest song from Accrington author and songwriter Gabriel Undici’s Mind The Trams Songbook, steps away from the bustle of Lockwood’s Bakery and the approaching excitement of St George’s Ballroom for something altogether quieter.
It is simply a song for Doris.
For the young woman behind the bakery counter.
For her kindness.
For her hopes.
And for all those small moments she gives away without ever expecting anything in return.
THE GIRL EVERYBODY KNOWS
Ask around Oswaldtwistle and somebody will know Doris.
Perhaps she served their morning loaf at Lockwood’s.
Perhaps they passed her walking to work.
Perhaps they simply remember the smile.
There is nothing remarkable about any of these things.
And perhaps that is precisely the point.
For Doris celebrates a young woman who does not realise she is extraordinary because nobody has ever told her she ought to be.
She simply gets on with living.
A SONG FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE
Gabriel’s contribution to the Mind The Trams Songbook carries a subtly different voice.
There is warmth in it — something almost Mediterranean — as though the song has travelled a very long way before eventually finding Doris in a small Lancashire town.
It doesn’t demand her attention.
It asks for nothing in return.
It simply seems to say:
I saw you.
And sometimes those may be the most important words another person can give us.
THE PEOPLE WE CARRY
Throughout Mind The Trams, Doris touches lives without necessarily understanding her importance within them.
Robert sees her one way.
Her friends another.
The customers at Lockwood’s perhaps barely think about it at all.
Yet each carries away a slightly different Doris.
A smile.
A conversation.
A kindness.
A memory.
Perhaps that is how ordinary people endure.
Not through statues or headlines, but in the stories other people continue telling about them.
FROM OSWALDTWISTLE TO SOMEWHERE WARMER
Among the twenty original songs of the Mind The Trams Songbook, For Doris provides a small pause.
For a few minutes, the mills of Oswaldtwistle seem a little further away.
The Lancashire rain stops.
Somewhere there might be a café table in an Italian square, a few old friends drinking their morning coffee and one man quietly singing a song about a Lancashire girl he somehow feels he has always known.
Then the song ends.
And we’re back outside Lockwood’s.
Perhaps Doris never heard it.
Perhaps songs like this aren’t written to be heard by the person they’re about.
Perhaps sometimes…
it is enough that somebody remembered to write one.
FROM NOVEL TO SONGBOOK
Written by Gabriel Undici, For Doris forms part of the twenty original songs inspired by his novel Mind The Trams, set among the ordinary lives of Oswaldtwistle and Accrington in 1939.
Together, the songs are also forming the foundations of a developing Lancashire musical, bringing a story of friendship, humour, love, community and approaching war from page to music — and perhaps eventually to the stage.
DISCOVER THE SONGBOOK
For Doris is available now as part of the Mind The Trams Songbook, streaming on Spotify and major music platforms.
Discover the novel, Songbook, artwork and growing Accrington Herald archive at:
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