Friday October 5, 1973

MM's 18th birthday. Good old Jim Rawnsley (who is God to millions of council workers all over Aireborough) gave me a lift to Rawdon traffic lights and subsequently I was at school for 8.30. When Christine arrives she hands me a birthday card for MM which I sign forthwith. I decorated the envelope with a replica of the 'Royal Wedding' postage stamp which is to be released on Nov 14. The birthday boy arrives 5 minutes later and Christine gives him the card. He also receives one from Judith Lea.

At 10.0 I go down to Rawdon Library to avoid doing Economics which I cannot face on a Friday morning.

Later: having returned to Benton Park I attempt to copy up my George III essay. When I tell Christine, at 12.30, that I cannot go up to the Emmotts with her and MM, she goes into a frenzy and rips up my essay. The devils both rushed out leaving me only three quarters of an hour to re-write the whole thing (which I had in draft anyway). I am successful. They arrive back drunk at 2.0 o'clock. MM is then dunked in the sinks and sent off to his Economics lesson. At 2.30 he still looks pissed. Groves realises in Current Affairs.____________.

Later. Chris rings. We decide to meet at the Stansfield Arms down Apperley Lane at 8.30 - another enjoyable evening. A couple of dears from the Salvation Army come in selling magazines. Marita and I fill in a crossword. Andy arrives at 9.30. Coming home we see Haggis, who is now wed, and the Scottish bus driver nearly kills Andy over something he said.

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Thursday October 4, 1973

Uncle Harry's 51st birthday. Arrive at Benton at 10 minutes to 9. Read George III and do my Economics until 12.30. Bid my farewells to Christine and then leave for home on the 1.15 bus.

Mother is awaiting my arrival and feeling very excited. Have lunch and then don my suit, and bid farewell to Mother who is entertaining Jennie Rawnsley, and to Father, who is messing around with the car. I leave for Leeds on the 2.30 55 bus. A 4 o'clock the ordeal begins - what a relief it all is. Such an interesting interview followed, where I was introduced to the head editorial librarian and to her deputy. They were surrounded by piles of reference books and news cuttings - just the sort of place for me. They let me know next week whether they require my services or not. I leave at 4.35 and go look in WH Smith's. Home by 6.45. Both Mum and Dad are very hopeful.

See tv until 9.20 when I depart to my bedroom and complete an Economics essay for tomorrow. John and the girls watch Diana Ross on BBC2.

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Tuesday October 2, 1973

Go to school on the 9.30 bus. Sit the whole day with Christine and MM._______________. Last term Mrs Butler made a film starring MM and Judith Lea - I saw it today. Quite remarkable indeed, and it looked extremely professional. It seemed so odd to be watching two friends on the screen. Jackie Petit stood very near me throughout the showing - and I enjoyed it very much - Jackie is so attractive - with fair hair. I would love to go out with her just to make ____jealous. How is that for wickedness? A stamp is to made made on November 14 to commemorate the Royal Wedding. A rather pleasant looking thing it is too. Princess Anne can certainly be a beauty when she tries. Her mouth is the only thing which lets her down. Her royal teeth are so prominent! Captain Philips's grandmother died over the weekend. Princess Anne accompanied him to the funeral which was, I think, in Wiltshire. It's a pity that the old girl didn't last out for the wedding. His other granny, Mrs Tiarks, is still battling on. Believe it or not, I remain at home tonight. I have not been isnide a pub since Friday. How have I survived these four days without drink? --==--

Monday October 1, 1973

Blimey! Rosie Clifton isn't half a scorcher! Whilst battling through breakfast I glanced at the Daily Mail and was surprised to see a large picture of Prince Michael of Kent completely over-shadowing old Wilson's plans to nationalize everything he can get his little filthy hands on. Dropping my slice of toast I took up the Mail and began reading. It seems that Miss Clifton has been at Balmoral since Friday as a guest of the Prince of Wales. What a beauty she is! The old Poet Laureate ought to pen something about her instead of churning out all that rubbish about conservation and saving old ruins. Anyway, the latter-day Venus flew from Aberdeen to Heathrow with Prince Michael. What is more, the Mail insinuates that Rosie must have argued with the prince and turned to Prince Michael instead. Just who does the editor of the Daily Mail think he is? Obviously, Rosie and Michael had to come back to London today and travelled on the same flight from the same house-party. The papers will do anything to create a sensation. Buckingham Palace spokesmen deny rumours of romances but nobody listens to them anymore.

School all day. Uneventful. The sun was bright but the day was cold.

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Friday September 28, 1973

The morning begins with me feeling very tired and listless. Totally 'under the weather'. By lunchtime I begin sneezing my head off. Christine takes all the blame because she started with a cold earlier in the week. However, I do not give in to it and last out at school until 4 o'clock.

Having already made arrangements to go out tonight I do not break them. Therefore, at 8.15, Dave, poor soul, collects John and I and Christine W. We go to the Fleece where Chris, Marita, Christine and Philip, Andy and MM are busily supping and merry-making. By 9.30 my cold is terrible and John yells at me for coming out on a cold evening with such an illness. Chris, being his usual gracious self, bought me a brandy. John, God Bless him, brought me another 2 brandies and a rye and dry. I was not even slightly pissed at 10.30.

MM invites us all back to his pad at 10.45 for coffee, and coffee only. We all go. I sit with Marita and almost fall to sleep on her - much to the dismay of Chris who is sitting on her other side. I am very fond of Marita, whom I first saw at Sue Crosby's 1st party all those months ago - she says so, because I have no recollection of seeing her until August 25. I was so drunk at Sue's party anyway.

Dave brings us home at 12.20 - me feeling lousy. Bed 12.30.

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Thursday September 27, 1973

A day of filthy, rain, rain and even more rain. Stay at home in the morning to do an Economics essay but to my horror I discover that I have mislaid the question. Anyway, at 12.30 I go to Benton and do my essay sitting with Julie Turner. Finished by 2.30.

The Economics lesson is awfully drab and I nearly fall asleep. Incidentally, I have been offered an interview at the Yorkshire Post. Will go see what happens next Thursday.

___has been spreading more rubbish about poor Chris.

See a horrid King Kong film. Chris rings at 8.30. We decide not to go out due to the freak weather conditions. But I am definately going out tomorrow. Lynn and Stephen Barstow come home. We all sit around the tv - Mum and Dad having gone out at 9 o'clock.

I see 'Jason King' at 11.30 and retire one hour later.

The Prince of Wales marriage stakes are making a large splash at the moment. Since Monday the Press have had the prince engaged at least five times - and to different women. The first of these fillies was Lady Jane Wellesley, daughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington - she of course denied it. The second was to a certain Janet Milner - she made no comment. Another was Rosie Clifton, a very theatrical sounding name. She's been to Balmoral for the weekend. In 1861 another Prince of Wales was entangled with a certain Nellie Clifden. Personally, I think it's a load of rot. Charles would never run off with a short-hand typist called Rosie. He is more sensible than that. I guess that the Prince of Wales will be 28 when he marries and the bride will be British upper class. Good old Lady Jane would fit in perfectly. After all, she is a relation of the dear Queen Mother.

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Wednesday September 26, 1973

A very interesting afternoon at school where Maggie Edwards, Irene, MM and myself entertain six old age pensioners - all over the age of 80. They sit and tell us ancient anecdotes of how they lived in the 1890s. Believe it or not one old boy cycled from Rawdon to Sheffield four times a week! And this routine went on for about a year! How has he managed to survive for so long after such hard work?

See the tv in the evening. Chris rings at 8 o'clock and wants to know if I'm going out. I say 'no'. But I am tempted. He and Andy are going off somewhere - poor Marita is in bed with cold.

John and Dad went out driving until 8.30 - it's the first time John has been at the wheel, and I think I will have a go tomorrow.

See Harold Macmillan on tv talking about 1963 - his last year of premiership. What a tremendous fellow he is. It's a damn shame he cannot live another 50 years to further his aims. You can tell from the conversation that he was born 30 years too soon.

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Monday September 24, 1973

Boring morning at Benton. Christine and MM went to David's at 42, Tennyson Street, where I joined them at 2.0 o'clock. We played records and drank some cheap sort of sweet sherry until 5 o'clock. Christine angered me by say Chris 'influenced' me. What absolute rot!

Arrive home at 5.30. Salad for tea. Mother argues about my job again. I am determined not to leave school until November 27. What's seven weeks anyway? See 'Coronation Street' at 7.30.

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Friday September 21, 1973

Groves today discovered that I do not wish to go to college next year. Christine told him in Current Affairs - which seems and appropriate time and place to tell him - but I was so surprised by Christine leaking my news that I had no satisfactory explanation for him. He was not upset and wants only what is best for me.

MM wants to know what is happening this evening. It's all in the air. Christine wants me to go out with a certain Helen Taylor, from the lower 6th. The poor girl fancies me, so I'm told. I cannot go out with any girl so soon after my broken affair with June - my only love. MM even offers me the keys to his house for tomorrow night so that I can take HT back there. I decline. However, I did accept his offer of a seat in the west stand at Leeds United. How could I refuse such hospitality?

Chris rings at 7 and says that Marita and he are going to the Tudor Bar at Burley. I ring Dave and he takes John and me. MM, Linda S, and Christine W also arrive. A very pleasant evening. We decide to go to the Pentagon in Bradford, but MM, Linda, Christine and Dave go home, leaving the five of us to fit into Marita's car. We all sit in the back singing 'Glory, Glory, Leeds United' - Andy wearing Marita's tin helmet. We stop off at our house so that I can put on a tie, and everyone settles down in our comfortable lounge and we remain there until nearly 2 o'clock. Playing records - yet again.

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Monday September 17, 1973

The start of yet another week at school. Saw the poor, desolate person, Mrs Sefton, on a corridor. The more I see of her the more I realise what a saint she is. How many people do you know who would be back in the classroom, telling everyone about the characteristics of the common earthworm, after being widowed for only two short weeks?

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Friday September 14, 1973

Awake at 7.30. Everyone leaves at 9.0 either for work or school. Uncle H going back to Wakefield.

I sit preparing my monarchy discussion until 11.30. Get the bus to school arriving at 12. I argue with Stott about funerals and the whole subject of people dying - he really is an uncultured brat.

Later: Christine and I hold our 6th form debate on the monarchy. Everyone dissolves when I say that the monarchy is good value for money compared with, say, the advertising for Kraft cheese slices - on which £7m per annum is spent. We cannot look at the monarchy is terms of tax payers money.

Later: John and I go to Chris's again. Find Andy preparing Chris's evening meal. Evidently, poor Chris is going on a pub crawl from work so before he even joins us he'll be stoned out of his tiny mind.

Another drunken escapade follows in the Fleece and we arrive back at Chris's house at 10.30 - after buying about 20 pints of beer at an off-licence. Very much like last Friday but minus Christine and Philip. Andy and I get awfully pissed and we both go buy some cigs at the machine outside Grandways at 4.30am. Whilst leaping over the large concrete plantpots Andy falls and hurts his ankle. I carry him back to Chris's - against his will. Chris and I bandage him up and then Chris makes John and I eggs and chips. Fall to sleep soundly until the following morning. Dave, the lucky blighter, was in a warm bed. I had the floor.

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Wednesday September 12, 1973

I am really sick of school. I cannot work or think straight. History is all muddled and I do not care whether I pass an examination ever again or not. My love for June shadows all other things. How will I ever come to terms with the fact that I will never see her again? I have no money either. What a terrible state I am in.

Later: Chris rings me and asks me to go round to finish the 'spare' beer off which is surplus from the party last Saturday._____________(censored). Marita arrived and sat with me all evening. Andy and I nearly choked over a joke which is far too obscene to record here in my diary, however I will record it leaving out some letters from the dirty word:

'Mary had a little pig,
She couldn't stop it gruntin'
So she stood it up against a wall,
and kicked it's little c_nt in.'

John and I got the 32 bus at 11.20 with Andy and arrive home exactly at 12.

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Wednesday September 5, 1973

A letter arrives from Middleton St George confirming just what I expected - they do not want me - this year anyway. Revise Napoleon I all day in the library. I took in a pile of records dating mainly from 1971. At leat they are more interesting than Donovan, etc.

Sit at lunchtime sharing my sandwiches with Christine. Oh, remember the days when I spent lunchtimes with June? Christine saw June in Horsforth the other day. She asked about me but is still enjoying herself deliriously. She went to the Mecca and Hoffbrau with Sue Bottomley last week. I would love things to revert to how they existed only several weeks ago. Michael Stott does not mention her name, although he must still be calling on her with Paul Tasker. I hold no grudge against the boy. Why can't she forget about the past? What can I have possibly done wrong anyway? I will write yet-again, begging her to reconsider. When I look back in the diary I realise what good times we used to share. Now it's all over. No wonder I cannot worry about my future career. What is to be enjoyed in life without June?

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Tuesday September 4, 1973

Get up at 7.45. Arrive Benton 8.55. The new lower sixth certainly look like a bunch of cabbages. Christine is horrified by them. See Mrs Lane for ten minutes. She is determined to see me pass the 'A' level in November - whether I like it or not!

Later: Ring Chris and tell him that Mr Sefton died on Saturday. (Mrs Sefton is senior mistress at Benton Park). He is shocked. The poor old boy had cancer and knew he was dying last Christmas.

See the 6 o'clock news. Mark Phillips flew to Kiev this afternoon. Before the week is out all the Royal Family might be on Russian soil! Mum says that Phillips seemed terribly shy when he was interviewed on tv last Saturday. He stutters badly. Poor soul, he may turn out to be another George VI - and if he has his qualities the Royal Family will not go far wrong.

Go to the Emmotts at 8.30. Andy Graham, Chris, Christine W are there. Andy brings his 'love metre' - very amusing. MM arrives at 9 & remains until 10.40. Go to chippie. MM brings everyone home except Chris and Andy - feel rotten about them being left out - but MM insists that only 5 people can travel in the Datsun. Bed by 11.30.

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Monday September 3, 1973

A very important day for the USSR and for me. They had a visit from Prince Philip and I returned to Benton Park. I cannot decide which is the more important of the two.

Go to Benton at 9 and discover, to my horror, that I am now the oldest pupil in the 6th form and thus in the entire school. How horrid. I am the sole survivor from last year's upper 6th. I now know just how Lord de Courcey felt in 1936 when he found himself the last survivor of the 'Charge of the Light Brigade': ANCIENT!

Spend the day planning the timetable and listening to Groves rambling on. See Mrs Lane and Mr Ayling. Both unnecessarily sympathetic. Sit with Christine, MM, Liz Clap, and Maggie Edwards.

Prince Philip, God bless him, became the first prince of the UK to visit the USSR since before 1917. I suspect that he's gone ahead to plan a state visit by the Queen in a couple of years time. Prince Philip was certainly in his element with all that informality. Princess Anne is already at Kiev and Mark Phillips is going either tomorrow or on Wednesday.

Spend the evening watching the television. Bed by 12.0.

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Friday August 31, 1973

Woke at 8.15 with the terrible realisation that I had overslept again. But it all fits my plans admirably. I decide to stay at home until 10.0 when I go into school with Christine and MM to see Groves.

Have a little breakfast and read my book about the Duchess of Portsmouth.

Arrive at Benton simultaneously with MM and Christine. They bring the new cups for the 6th form. Don't see Groves until 12.0. He advies me to wait until I have heard from the college, but to go into school until I do. Term starts on Monday. Go back to see Bill and tell him I'm going back. He wishes me good luck - again. Mess about with the bus shelters until 4.30.

Later: Dave picks John and me up and we go to the Fleece. Christine and Philip are saving seats for us. MM and Linda Smith arrive later. We go to the Intercon at the Cow and Calf at 10.30. Christine, in answer to the call of nature, visits Pine Tops for the first time. She thinks it's extremely cosy. Andy and I make attempts to get very drunk - successfully. Poor Philip went through £8. A very bizarre occurrence took place at 2.30am on Saturday morning. Dave and Christine decided to go for a walk on Ilkley Moor whilst Philip and I slept in his car. Ten minutes later I'm awakened by Dave laughing but minus Christine. To my horror we find Christine unconscious in a four-foot pot hole in the heather. I thought at first that she was dead. After a ten minute struggle we have her back in the car - bruised but alive. Alas, she had lost her bracelet, and in her drunken state, she began to cry. Philip slept on. We take her to Pine Tops for a strong coffee. At 3.35 Dave and I take C home and then return to Ilkley Moor in search of the precious bracelet - sadly, to no avail. Bed by 4.35am.

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Wednesday August 29, 1973

Terrible day. I failed my Economics - grade 7. Why, why, why, must I always mess up my examinations? I needed them so much. Mother and Father are very disappointed, but we 'celebrate' with a bottle of wine over dinner. MM, whop got grade 2, rings at 6.30. He and Christine found my result this morning. Christine was horror struck.

John and I go the Emmotts at 8.30. He meets Christine White. Chris and Marita join us at 9.30.

I am totally undecided about what to do. Should I pack up with further education and find a job? I just do not know. MM brings everyone home at 11 after fish and chips. Bed by 11.30.

PS - Princess Anne is now in Kiev for those horse trials. She is the first member of the British Royal Family to visit the USSR.

--==--

Monday August 20, 1973

God what a day. Go into school at 2 o'clock. See from a list on Groves desk that I have failed my History 'A' level. The horrid little sheet of paper said: 'History: four entries, three passes.' It just had to be me. They gave me an 'O' level pass. Dave got two Cs. I already have history 'O' level so it's useless really.

Dave and I take Chid to Horsforth College of Further Education - June goes there on September 14. Chid must fancy his chances.

Later. Dave and I go to see MM. Sit with him sipping very miky coffee. MM is very sorry about my failing. Go home at 6.0. Mum very sad.

John and I meet June and Susan in the Emmotts at 8 o'clock. I take my crank letter with me (received another one today). Chris enjoys reading them and looks very pale. Susan Bottomley is a very strange child indeed. I do hope that John doesn't take her out.

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Thursday July 12, 1973

June comes to school at 3.30. At 4 we walk down to the bus stop at Greenacre Hall. She goes at 4.20. Feeling very strange I walk back to the 6th form where Christine and Michael Stott are larking around. Go home on the 5 o'clock bus.

Christine and I are the last people out of the block, leaving Mary to her devices.

Sad, quiet evening.

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Tuesday July 10, 1973

Denny is 17 years old today. I must ring her before Friday. Go to school in the afternoon - no one is around - nip down to Rawdon Library then go home. Don't see June today - too dreadful.

Watch television all evening. Collect a few economics books together and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Oh what a completely uneventful and miserable day it was.

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