Sunday January 25, 1976

3rd Sunday after Epiphany. After a restless night I eventually get up at 11 o'clock. John lays cowering in bed and I feel miserable for him. The whole thing seems like a dream - and I expect to wake up from it any moment. To make matters worse I have a hangover and my nervous system in general just can't take much more.

John looks at the situation objectively. One regret is that he may well have to dispose of his car.

It snows for most of the day and it's bitterly cold. Carole and I go for a long walk through Hawksworth and we are near to hysterics after the events of the weekend.

Coming back to our place I pass what seems like the longest afternoon I have ever experienced. Carole and I frantically whispering. The television seemed to be devoted to Mothercare advertisements and references to marriage and children.

After tea Carole, Mum, Sue & Peter and I watch the film 'The Italian Job' and at 9.30 I take Carole down for her bus. I chase home in freezing conditions and play cards in the dining room with Sue & Pete.

John and Maria come and sit with Mum. I hope and pray that they will tell her before 'bedtime'. Lynn and Dave come in at 10 o'clock and our card game comes to a sudden end when Dave says that John & Maria have told Mum the news. Dad comes in ten minutes later and we all sit down with a bottle of whisky. Mum & Dad take the news like angels. Shocked and speechless.

At 12 o'clock John takes Maria home with the task of breaking the news to the Macdonalds. I shall report on that event in tomorrow's entry.

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Saturday January 24, 1976

I am in a state of great shock and acute excitement. Carole left at 10 o'clock before I got up and I didn't stir until 12.

John went off to see Andy at the Station on Henshaw Lane and I did nothing at all until lunchtime.

Dave L rang and I was surprised to hear he's home for the weekend. God knows what he'll be doing tonight because Linda hasn't invited him to her 21st.

Carole rings at 2.30, or 3 o'clock and John and I go round to Maria's. Richard Wellock and a friend are there supping tea and Carole is looking shifty, and I wonder what the Hell is wrong. Richard and friend go and Carole and I are left alone listening to the Santana LP. Mr & Mrs Mac go out and John and Maria are sitting in the dining room.

Carole looked at me and said: "We didn't go shopping to Leeds this morning, you know." I replied "what did you do then?" And she said: "It's something to do with Maria." I felt my knees knocking together. The truth rushed over me like a waterfall. She is pregnant. John's going to be a daddy in August, and I am going to be an uncle. I cannot describe the emotion of it all. Happiness mixed with a reserved sense of doom. He will be 20 in September and Maria will be 18 in July. What Mum will say I just cannot imagine.

At the Yorkshire Rose for Linda's 21st John and Maria announce that they are getting engaged next Saturday. Chris and a few others soon find out that she's pregnant, and Peter M is upset that John won't be able to go on holiday with us in July. Get drunk, and go back afterwards to Maria's until 2.30. They're telling her parents tomorrow and so I'll make myself scarce before the announcement.

And to think that last Wednesday I was joking with Maria about her being pregnant and now it's all true.

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Friday January 23, 1976

My financial situation isn't very good at the moment and we go to the Hare & Hounds with light-weight wallets and purses. (Carole isn't in a better monetary state either).

Peter M stormed out of the Hare after Chris told him he was going back out with Christine. I was chuffed to hear from Chris that I am responsible for getting them back together. Christine says she'll kill Pete if he doesn't stop acting so childishly, but I keep telling her that the poor lad is completely besotted.

Have no funds to go to a disco and have to fork out £2 for a camera for Linda's 21st tomorrow.

Carole and Maria are going to Leeds tomorrow morning so I'll be able to have a few hours extra in bed.

We come back to our place and watch a film and then sit talking until 3am. Lynn sat with us for ages chatting about her job. (She handed her notice in tonight, and her boss brought her home). I tell her she should go on the stage or screen. She'd make a brilliant actress. We all have a good laugh really.

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