Tuesday April 23, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

Very blustery. Bright though. St George. Lord Carrington and the Marquis of Normanby have got the Garter.Dray came at 9. We shopped until 10. The girl on the counter in the bank is the most moody cow imaginable. Mavis phoned at 10:45 to give her notice. I accepted it. Since meeting 'lover boy' her heart just hasn't been in it. __________. Ally has kept the names and addresses of the people we interviewed last month and at 5:30 I phoned one Gary Booth, and he snapped up my offer of a job. He starts on Saturday. 

(Phoned Dad. Mum has been brighter - but no food).

Our pool team played the Gemini pub tonight and we won. Much of the zest in the squad has gone since Archie's passing. Jim Precious is still very cut up about it. Andy Bowden and Co. came in. We had a quiz. I am quite good and startle the others at my ability to answer silly questions. Such as: Who died in HMS Hampshire in 1916? Kitchener, of course. Name the tallest cathedral spire in England. Salisbury. We really should have a quiz team. Pool is so bloody dull. To bed at 11:30 with a plate of sandwiches.

-=-

Monday April 22, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

Samuel was up at 4am squealing and rubbing his gums. His teeth. A letter arrived saying we have a stocktake on Wednesday. Ally and Sam went off at 2 to town to collect my new suit - £70. Not bad, eh? Later I gave a fashion parade - very Prince of Wales - double-breasted.

Went to drive with Karen H at 9. Good. Armitage visited Mum at Club St at 8:30pm. I phoned them at 9:30pm. Armitage told Mum to take water tablets until the weekend and then if the swelling on her tummy hasn't gone down she will have to go into Airedale (Hospital) to have it drained. He, Armitage, bore sad tidings. The surgeon, Mr Hall, who operated on Mum in December, died yesterday. Probably his ticker. Mum took this very bad. Dad repeats how weak she is. I am sure he is expecting the end. I'm blank to it all. ___________.

-=-

Sunday April 21, 1985

 2nd Sunday after Easter

Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II

Moorhouse Inn

The good lady - the Sovereign is 59 years old today. She is celebrating at Badminton House, where the horse trials are in full swing. Horrible anti-blood sport yobbos attempted to disrupt the tranquility of HM's Gloucestershire weekend break. She turned a blind eye to the demo. Good old sov.

Ally is dead to the world. Yet another late night has bumped her off. I was downstairs at lunch and she and Sammy snuggled together in bed. Chicken later. A minor snooze afterwards. 

Phoned Club St. Hilda and Tony visited them this evening._____. 

Mavis's obsession with her strange moustachioed paramour reached its heady climax, and at 11pm instead of washing glasses, she was writhing around the walls in a mad passionate grip. Like a scene from 'Caligula'. Needless to say I had a few sharp words with her about this lapse, and she went away sulking. _________.

-=-

Saturday April 20, 1985

 New Moon

Moorhouse Inn

New Moon? Well, I suppose it will make a change from the old one. I cannot wait to see it. Ally and I were up and out to Bradford and to Linfoood, and then she dropped us at Club St and went to the dentist. I sat with Mum and Dad played with Samuel. He is so good at the moment and tries to talk. He points at everything and everything according to Sam is 'dirty'. Mum was attempting to swallow Paracetamol tablets but couldn't get them down and was sick. She is so very weak. Dad attempted to prop her up, and she started to cry. Samuel couldn't understand this and he joined in and wept too, which upset Mum all the more. Dad made me kippers for a late breakfast. ________. To Guiseley at 4. Saw Sue and Co. and then went on to Lynn's for half an hour. I haven't been there since early February. How remiss. 

PM: John, Janette, Jill, Tim, Karen, & Steve appeared. We wanted a quiet night. They all stayed until after midnight. Janette says the baby will be surnamed Rhodes.

-=-

Friday April 19, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

As we suspected cousin Sam has contacted Gt-Aunt Ann, and has, as I also suspected, almost scared her to death. It was wrong of me to pass on to Sam the Kirk's address in the first place and I do feel very guilty. Sam has sent Dad a lengthy, garbled letter mentioning the police force, General Galtieri and the Marquis de Sade. Sounds grim. I suppose I should sent Auntie Ann a grovelling apology. My cousin is expected back here soon to collect a print of a Grandma Rhodes photo. Ally was dead to the world all day. Blame the wine. 

The Waleses have left for Italy - a 17-day extravaganza including an audience with the Pontiff. They are taking a cruise afterwards in Britannia with Princes William and Harry going along too. We are told that Diana is taking 34 new creations on the jaunt. The princess has appointed Viscountess Campden, a RC, to be an extra lady-in-waiting.

I stayed upstairs until 10:45pm. Had fish and chips. Ally, who says she's too fat, demolished a salad.

-=-

Thursday April 18, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

Audrey and Margaret worked at lunchtime and so we escaped to look at the shops in town. I ordered 'George V' by Kenneth Rose from Austick's. To Royce, who are closing down, where Ally bought me a new grey suit and pullover knocked down from £30 to £15. Samuel appreciates these excursions to Leeds and he waves frantically at all the passing buses and pedestrians. 

Tonight was a late one. We sat with Janet (barmaid) . Ally supped wine with gay abandon. We talked about holidays. Dear Ios. Janet's family come from Jamaica but she refuses to go visit because of the creepy crawly things. 1am finish. To bed pissed. Ally made pie and peas and we left them, festering, on the bedroom floor. Don't Cry For me, Ethiopia.

-=-

Wednesday April 17, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

Princess Michael of Kent, clad in sackcloth and ashes, was on TV-AM talking about the discovery that her father, Baron von Reibnitz, served in the Waffen-SS. The poor girl did a good job. How can she be blamed? Blimey, Prince Philip's sisters married German officers. So what? The war ended in 1945 for goodness sake. It would be a far worse and more deeply upsetting thing if it was revealed that the Queen Mother's father was once a Labour voter. I suppose it all depends were ones political affiliations lie. The BBC used Marie-Christine's interview and later TV-am obtained a high court injunction  to halt this so called broadcasting 'piracy'. Prince Michael is a pal of Tim Aitken, the TV-am chief, and is on the board of Aitken Hume. I am not too sure about royals going into the business world. Look what befell poor Angus Ogilvy in '76?

We had a visit from Bob Walker's side-kick. They are taking down our shutters. To Bradford at 2. Dad had just returned from Horton where the carpets had be re-laid (£500!). Mum in bed, drowsy, looking old. We gave Samuel tea and returned to Leeds at 5. I am glum. Our night off. Had chilli con carne and watched 'Dallas'. 

It was the palace banquet for President Banda tonight. Princess Michael was escorted into dinner on the arm of the Duke of Norfolk.

We went to bed at 10. 

Tuesday April 16, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

Gunther von Reibnitz.

6:30am start. Went to shift barrels around the cellar in readiness for the dray delivery. Up at 8 for bacon. Ally couldn't get up. Switched on Breakfast TV and saw the news. The headlines are the revelation that Princess Michael of Kent's father was a member of the Waffen-SS from 1933. Bit of stink. I fail to see why such excitement has been generated by this. A palace spokesman says the news, printed in a new and scurrilous book, came as a shock to Princess Michael. Has there been a cover-up? Did the Queen know? &c. It is nonsense. You'd hardly expect a German aristocrat with the name Baron Gunther von Reibnitz to join the Scots Guards, could you? Living in Germany in the 1930s he would have had little choice. Princess Michael did not meet her father until she was 18. He disappeared to Africa after the war. All very tenuous and trumped up. The anti-monarchists are having a field day. The coverage on the BBC news is outrageous. Pictures of Hitler and Eva Braun at Berchtesgaden intermingled with horrific shots of Belsen and the Kents wedding in Vienna in 1978. Surely, not acceptable? HRH is expected later to be at a Buckingham Palace banquet later for the state visit of the president of Malawi.

Phoned Dad.

-=-

Monday April 15, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

Went out at 9 driving with Karen Hudson. I am at stalemate really because I have done no driving since my last lesson, and practice is what I need. She has the impression that I am nervous and need to relax, but I tootle along  feeling confident and not in the least  bit intimidated. Must be my quiet manner. I have never been one to chatter aimlessly with anyone. To strangers I may come across as shy, but to those who know me well see the fun-loving clown that I really am. 

I have been reflected that since Mum's illness we have been shunned by some friends. Is it that people just do not know what to say? 

-=-

Sunday April 14, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

1st Sunday after Easter

Dad phoned as I was opening the doors at 12 to say Mum has had a fall. She didn't wake Dad at 4am when she climbed out of bed to go to the loo and she lost her grip and fell backwards banging her head with force on the floor. At 3 we went to Club Street. The place was like a kindergarten. JPH & Catherine were there. Having lanigans, as they say in Hunslet. Unbelievably, John and Dad were replacing a skirting board and were sawing a plank of wood on the carpet. Ally was displeased. Mum was upstairs and I questioned why no doctor had been called when she was clearly in some pain in her neck and shoulders. She is so thin now it is a miracle she didn't break bones. A pile of Catherine Cookson books lay on the bed. Spring flowers on the dressing table, and Mum flat out , withering before our very eyes. Ally and Sam left me with Mum alone. That quick mind has gone. That vitality has already died. It is so wrong that people have to suffer in such a way. How lucky are those people who drop like a stone with a massive heart attack? So see a loved one, aged only 50, wasting away, is pure Hell. She was always so good and thoughtful and a lover of family life and all that goes with it. All snatched from her by this evil disease. ______.

-=-

Saturday April 13, 1985

 Moorhouse Inn

(The page was blank. A rare occurrence. Probably the first blank page in the twelve years blogged so far. Dear Reader, as I compile this blog I am reading my journal for the first time since it was penned. Some entries of early 1985 I am finding very difficult to re-live. Harrowing stuff.)