Saturday May 19, 1973

Get up at 11.45. Disgraceful aint it? Have a very sore throat. Go to Morrison's with Mum and Dad. See one of the bods who goes to the Emmotts with Tim Wallis's mother and father - say hullo. Come home and have a nice sirloin with mushrooms.

Go to Waite's of Guiseley to be photographed at 2 o'clock. Buy about 3 boxes of different throat pastiles. Come home and have a black coffee. Mum goes into Major Smith's next door. They leave for Germany on Wednesday to stay with her mother and he is paying me £1 to cut his lawns - which can't be bad.

At about 3.30 whilst listening to Radio 1 I hear a news flash saying that the Royal Navy has entered Icelandic waters to protect fleets of British trawlers. The Queen signed Orders in Council this morning to despatch the navy. Yet another burst of good old Imperial policy. Lord Palmerston would certainly be proud of todays British government.

Watch 'Dr Who'. Go to CW at 7. Pauline is thrilled at Sue's news. A very slow evening. Sue goes to bed at 11.30 but comes back 1 hr later - after having a nice hot bath. I have a beer and help make Sue scrambled eggs on toast for herself. Toffer brings us home at 1.30. Have cheese, egg on toast and come to bed at 2.30 after glancing at the latest 'Economist'.

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Friday February 23, 1973

Awoke at 6.30. My throat was on fire so I went to the kitchen and poured a large glass of orange juice with ice - it was beautiful. I then went back to bed until 7.45. Mum awoke me with a letter from the teacher training college at Middleton St George. - I have to go for an interview on Friday March 2 at Darlington again! Went to catch the 55 bus at 8.20 and a freak snowstorm set in when I walked down the lane. Marian Lister and her son, Nigel (Susan's ex) were waiting for the bus. She told me that Dave was working at the pet shop whilst she took her driving test. (She failed).

The morning was very unlucky from my point of view. I was so unlucky meeting the same bus inspector 3 times on 3 different buses. I decided to use my pass to get to Rawdon and told the bus inspector that I was going to school to do an exam. He fell for it, but said he thought the schools were on holiday, and most schools are on holiday. How was I to know that he would change to the very same bus I and June were to get? He called me a liar and a cheat, and said I wouldn't get away with it again, etc.

We all went to the Magistrates Court in Bradford by 10.30. Mrs Telford was there, coming to gloat at peoples crimes and misfortunes. Passed a very interesting morning sitting next to June in the public gallery. We then went into Bradford Library had had a laugh playing in the lifts.

At about 12.30 June, Janet and I left to get a 55 bus, but Dale persuaded us to go for a drink in a bllody awful pub. It looked like a brothel with girls sprawled over the juke boxes - we left after 10 minutes. Snow set in at 12.40. June and I managed to get a bus to Rawdon traffic lights. It was imposibble to see anything but snow through the bus windows. We laughed at the snow-covered people mounting the bus. At Rawdon June came with me to my bus stop. We drew pictures in the snow. Steve Tate was also waiting with us.

I went at 1.10 saying my goodbyes to June. Dave, Michael Jackson, Ian Morby, P. Robertson, Tat, MM, Christine, M. Price, Michael Attenborough, Mr Ayling joined the party in viewing the Gas HQ in Leeds - very boring. Came home on the 33 bus at 4.30. Dave came with me. Rushed up the lane and had something to eat, the first I'd eaten since breakfast.

Went down to the Chuck Wagon as ususal. Boring evening but the money is all right, and that's what really matters. Nothing else much to say, so that's all. Byee!

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Birth of Mig's Journal

On January 1 1973 I was a 17 year-old living at Pine Tops, 58 Hawksworth Lane, Guiseley. I was a pupil in the 6th form at Benton Park Grammar School, Rawdon. At home I lived with my parents, Lawrence (born in 1934) a police constable based at Guiseley police station; mother Nora (born 1935) who worked as a secretary at Barnes & Winder (trailers?) at White Cross, Guiseley. My siblings are John (born 1956), an apprentice joiner from 1971 with Slater & Padgett, of Yeadon; and 2 sisters, Lynn (born 1958), a schoolgirl; and Susan (born 1959) a schoolgirl.

In 1973 I was , apparently, obsessed with June Bottomley and the 23 year-old Princess Anne and was somewhat over zealous with my usage of the exclamation mark.

Some of the characters appearing in my 1973 journal:
Uncle Harry (1922-94) my father's eccentric brother. Policeman and heavy drinker.

Toffer Riley, aka Christopher Riley, owner of the Chuck Wagon, Guiseley restaurant. Bearded, long hair.

Sue Riley (born 1950) Toffer's wife

Dave Lawson (born 1955) schoolfriend since 1967 who moved to Benton Park with me from Guiseley Secondary School in 1971. Later teacher and market garden proprietor.

Some schoolfriends: Christopher Ratcliffe (born 1955); Christine Braithwaite (born 1956); Louise Harris; Denise Akroyd (born 1956); June Margaret Bottlomley (born 1956); Graham Cowburn (known as Cowie); etc.

This journal begins on January 1, 1973. It was born during a country in crisis. The Heath government was on its last legs. The "Three Day Week" reigned. TV closed down in the evening. The nation was on strike. Power cuts, &c. The idea of writing a diary in a Pepys-like setting next to a burning candle inspired me to take up my pen. I compiled my diary in a page-a-day WH Smith diary. It runs from Jan 1 1973 to somewhere in 1991 and consists of millions of words. Would it be a good idea to publish, in an abridged form to protect the dead, my banal outpourings? Yes. So here goes