Saturday May 22, 1976

Mum gets me up at 9.30 and they're away on holiday to the Isle of Skye at 10.30.

I hang about at home until 3pm when I ring Denise and arrange to meet her in Bradford at 5.30 after I've done some shopping.

Cook myself a piece of steak at lunchtime and by 3.30 I'm in Bradford succumbing to the charms of a devious shop assistant who forces me into purchasing two T-shirts - £10!!

Meet Denise at 5.30 and travel to Bramhope where we have fish fingers and cannon ball peas for tea. Peter M comes in at 7.30 and catches a mouse scurrying across the kitchen floor. The poor thing collapsed and died in his hands five minutes later - must have been the shock of seeing Peter M close up. P was heartbroken.

To the Hare at 8.30. Everyone comes: John, Maria, Sarah, Peter, Carol, Marilyn, Cousin Jackie, her boyfriend Don, Tony, Denise, Chris, Pete M, CB, CD, Keith, Carol Smith, Carole, Linda S, Ann from the USA with her sister Carol, Christine 'Snow' White, Eileen, Michael, Roger Boughton, Naomi and her Welsh cousin Helen, &c, and many more.

Fantastic party. Jackie disappeared early with a stomach disorder, but otherwise all was fine. At 4.30am Keith drove me and Marilyn to Carol J's flat in Horsforth where we stayed until 8.

Sarah was a good laugh and her boyfriend Peter is quite a decent chap really. John thinks he resembles David Hamilton which may be the reason why I think I've seen him somewhere before.

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Monday May 3, 1976

Go to Bradford with my holiday money and meet Denise at the Painted Wagon. She tells me she and Tony finished on Easter Saturday which surprised me. I tell her it's only a matter of time before Carole and I are also washed up on the rocks.

Glad that the holiday is paid for anyway. Came home on the bus brooding about Carole.
Yesterday she was like a cabbage. Her moronic appearance is getting me down. I decide to break it off once and for all.

Dad takes me to see David in hospital at 4 o'clock. He looks terrible. A bottle of blood hangs above his bed with a tube leading to his arm. Five pints (of blood) he's had since last night. A hemorrhaged duodenal ulcer at 21 is a rare thing I think. He still managed to crack the occasional joke though.

Meet Carole at 7.30 and by 8 o'clock I've made my feelings known to her. Four hours of tears from both of us and hysterics from her which included a spectacular battle in the pouring rain at 1.15am. She looked heart broken and desperate but how could we have continued in a 'relationship' when I feel so bored & uninterested ?

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Saturday March 27, 1976

Dave L is back in our midst. He took Carole, myself, Sue & Peter up to the Cow & Calf pub this evening after a dead hour in the Hare with only Andy and Linda in attendance. Peter M came in and he accompanied us to the Cow in his own vehicle. The astounding thing about the whole evening was the free juke box!

People were marvelling at Dave's beard. He certainly has given himself a Biblical touch. To a fish & chip shop in Burley-in-Wharfedale where we gorge and feast ourselves in Dave's car. Back to our place for coffee and Mr Lawson took Carole home.

Meanwhile: Earlier that day. Carole and I went to Bradford where she collected my bomber jacket and whilst I was rooting for Mother's Day cards she went and bought me a gold crucifix on a gold chain. I know she likes buying me things, but somehow it gives me a feeling of uneasiness. We didn't argue once - unusual for us when shopping, because Carole is never the same as when she's dragging me round those sweaty, hot department stores.

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Thursday February 5, 1976

Another wet, horrible day. Work was a load of crap too. Left at 4pm after working through lunch and travel home in daylight which is unusual.

Carole rang me at work whilst I was out of the office. Eileen made it sound urgent and so I rang C at Bradford. She didn't want anything in particular but reminded me she's coming to my place straight from work. (By 'straight from work' of course she means straight after she's spent half the evening round at Maria's gossiping.) Women!

Nothing in the news other than the Jeremy Thorpe affair again, which is getting boring now. The Press get onto a good thing and then go and ruin it by ramming it down our throats.

Carole comes at 6.30 and I make her beans on toast. We then watch 'Top of the Pops' together with Mum & Dad and at 8 0'clock get a bus to the Hare. After messing about for half an hour in the lounge we go through to the tap room where we win £1 on the domino lottery.

Carole is something of a celebrity in the Hare & Hounds tap room because she's the only woman there under 50 years of age and under 18 stone, and the locals look upon her as a second Jayne Mansfield or Raquel Welch.

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Thursday January 22, 1976

Booked my Spring holiday for May 3-10th. Carole and I, with Chris and Christine, are going to Worcester, all being well, and I can hardly wait to have yet another rave-up in Sacha's with all those cheap shorts.

Go to the Mecca in Bradford with Carole and her Mum & Dad on the Highroyds loony bin staff annual piss up. See Shelley Masterson with her husband Clive. Also see Barbara who isn't with Shelley & they seem to have fallen out. I hate the place and don't particularly like Mrs Phillips (she's rough). However, Carole and I have a good time which is spent rotating around the building sipping gin and orange which is abominably priced.

Home at 1.30 and leap straight into bed.

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Thursday January 1, 1976

The New Year. For the past five or six years these so called New Years have always begun with people vomiting all over the place and crawling around on hands and knees moaning things like 'Oh my bloody head's gorn and blown orf' and such like. Why we do it, I fail to see.

After collapsing in the lounge after completing the washing up I sleep until 11 o'clock or something like that. Carole's gone when I eventually come round, and Dave B sits around gloating at my obvious discomfort.

A cooked breakfast only makes matters worse and by noon I'm fighting for my life, as the papers like to say when people are in fact just dying.

Dave L gave me three tickets for 'Jaws' last night, and Carole, Chris and myself are going tonight.

At 1pm John, Lynn, Dave B and I go down to the Commercial for a few drinks, but I stick to tomato juice and coca cola. Dave and Lynn are too frisky to be real, and watching them laughing and joking coupled with the fumes, grime, and the stale smell of the pub only makes me feel worse. I go for a walk round Esholt churchyard to cheer myself up. It's just amazing how many people died in Esholt in 1953. They must have been slowly bored to death by the pageant of the Coronation. It starts to rain at 1.30 and so I go back to join the others in the pub.

Drive home at 3 and it begins to snow. Arrive home all singing 'White Christmas'.

I go straight to bed and wake up at 5.30. The snow is very deep and I worry about Chris and Carole getting up the hill safely. They arrive at 7 and it takes great skill to scale our drive, which would prove a task even for Sir Edmund Hillary.

The film (Jaws) was on in Bradford and was absolutely fantastic. Not over-rated one single bit but for Carole it was too frightening and she was in tears at the end. Home after 11. Chris and Carole came in for a coffee.

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Friday December 19, 1975

Dave, from No 40, Hawksworth Lane, arranged a trip to Annabella's disco in Bradford. All the gang went, by coach of course, and we drank and made merry until 2am.

Carole and I were squabbling again and I realise we haven't quite seen eye to eye lately.

CB was with us. I bought Dave L all his ale. I don't object to this of course because you know as well as I do that I'd do anything for David. These college chaps can't afford to eat or live - let alone booze.

Home at 2.30. John was three sheets to the wind and proceeded to make more than a bit of a racket on our arrival at the palace.

Goodnight one and all.

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Tuesday December 9, 1975

Another boring day. It must be something to do with the time of year. Christmas cannot come too soon for my liking.

Spend most of the day with Sydney Burton who is trying to find the YP file for September 1965. We aren't successful at all.

The only good parts about the day was when Carole rang at lunchtime and when I met Judith R on Bradford Road at 5.30. Carole didn't have any news and we only discussed our next meeting which looks like tomorrow night. We laughed about the incident in the bus stop last night. Poor Carole is getting a complex about raising her voice. My meeting with Judith had a few surprises. a) She's semi-engaged at the moment to Terry, a 35 year-old male nurse, and expects to be married in about two years after his DIVORCE, and b) she's managed to get a job as a typist in Bradford. We have a laugh and she says I will have to go for weekends to her house when she is married. Would Terry be happy with such an arrangement? I think not. A Crazy bird she is indeed.

Home for tea and hear Dad on the phone to Robinson at the Craven Heifer. He is definately sending the accounts to us tomorrow, so we'll have some information at last. By February we may be resident in Addingham.

Carole rings from Maria's place again. I walk round at 8.30 and find Maria in a terrible state. After arguing with John on the phone she proceeded to drop down on the floor and wail. Mr & Mrs Mac came back from hospital and were unable to console her. Only Lynn and David (who made a surprise visit) made any impression and she cheered up quite reasonably. After several cups of coffee and a pile of cakes we walk home. Dave takes Carole home.

FIN

Thursday May 22, 1975

Gillian and I go see 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', a full-length feature film, at the ABC Cinema in Bradford. Really hilarious. We both sat snorting like pigs throughout, and ached with the strain of laughing all the way home on the bus.

We called in on Naomi for ten minutes or so, and I walked Gillian home.

Home at about 11pm to see the new CAR!! A Toyota Corona or something. A beautiful shade of red, and quite the joy of Papa, who vows he's never seen anything like it. He never imagined that the day would dawn when he was the owner of a car free from rust!

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Saturday March 15, 1975

Up at noon. Sue wants to go to Bradford in order to get a present for Peter, who is 17 on March 20, and I seem like a capable victim for her escort into Yorkshire's answer to Delhi. A bright sunny afternoon - cold though -is awaiting us in Bradford, and we visit Lynn who is selling suitcases in the British Home Stores. On to see Dear Denny, who enjoyed herself immensely in the Hare last night. Sue purchased a St Christopher locket for Peter, and we vacatedthe city at about 4.30.

To the Hare again. Gillian looks a bloody misery - so I soon get out of her company, and Helen doesn't harbour any grudges about last night, so all's well really.

Christine is in with Gary and she jokes about her birthday cards, but she soon departs when Chris arrives with Denny and Peter Mather. Chris was riddled with laryngitis when I last heard - but he's slightly improved now. John and Co. go off to Wheels and the remainder of us sod about in the Hare until 11. Ron, who was once more than good friends with Denny, and Graham Pease join us. Quite a laugh.

Chris and I come back home for a coffee but he leaves shortly after. See a Bob Hope film with Lynn, Dave, Sue and Peter. Bed at about 2.30. (It's 1.30 really but they've altered the clocks to Summer Time now.)

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Sunday December 22, 1974

4th in Advent. Repulsive weather for the time of year. Brilliant sun shines down upon us, and if somebody was to tell me we are in the middle of August I would take the information without a query. Mr Baker collects Lynn at the early hour of 1pm and rushes her off her feet to the wilds of Otley Chevin. Peter pays court to Susan and then drags her back to his place for tea.

Mummy and Daddy are also restless this afternoon and they disappear too. This mass migration to other spheres leaves John and myself quite alone. See the TV. 'Captain Horatio Hornblower' a Gregory Peck film, then we listen to my Monty Python LP.

After a long bath with the backing of the Sold Gold 60 programme on the radio I ring Marita for a report on the weekend activities of the 'Jet Set'. They too have indulged in quiet activities this weekend, and she's near to hysterics when I tell her of yesterdays antics with the two Davids in Bradford. She loved the bit about the old lady in British Home Stores complaining to the staff about us handling the frilly knickers.

John and I see the play 'Crown Matrimonial', starring Greer Garson as Queen Mary, matriarch of the Royal House of Windsor, a bold and dedicated woman whom the present Queen closely resembles. The play was brilliant and the portrayal of all the characters was perfect.

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Saturday December 21, 1974

The events of last night were hilarious & fantastic. So fantastic that conveying what passed down here on this historic paper can never do them justice. All I need do is inscribe herein that I went to Wikis with Christine on Dec 20, 1974, and I will re-live those hours over and over again in minute detail. Received a Christmas card from Christine this morning and I think it's just my luck to be over fond of an engaged young lady. Will I ever be successful in love?

Dave slept on our floor all night, and managed to be up at 7 to drive Lynn to Bradford. He stays for breakfast, then lunch, and then takes me shopping in Guiseley for a few odds and sods for Mother. After lunch David arrives. He has a few laughs with John in the sick room before taking Mr Baker and myself off on a final present buying spree to Bradford. We're in town all afternoon and manage to get most things we wanted. I buy Mother a bowl from Brown Muffs which is a bizarre looking thing - something resembling an overstarched upturned handkerchief. Nobody really knows whether they like it or not. Go see Lynn in British Home Stores, and she is still rather pale and washed-out after last night. Dave's bought her a silver locket for £6, a bottle of pernod for £4, and a pair of black, sexy briefs for 50p. That lot adds up to over £10! It must be love or something. Don't go out this evening. Chris is astounded when I tell him. All he can say, over and over again is: "don't you realise it's the Saturday before Christmas?"

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Saturday November 16, 1974

Henry III died 1272. Nice to have Saturday morning off. Wake at 10 with the sun blazing through the bedroom window - a brilliant morning. Dad is playing about in the kitchen erecting a new cupboard. John and I decide to go to Yeadon for a spot of shopping and we prowl around the record shop and try to find a bag of sugar in Morrison's which is like trying to fins a haydle in a neestack. Discover that 'due to panic buying' no sugar is obtainable.

Back home I discover lashings of hot broth & dumplings - having had no breakfast I was famished. Mum and Sue go to Bradford after lunch and I sit in front of the TV awaiting my faithful driving instructors arrival. See the beginning and the end of 'Pride and Prejudice'. The noble Lord Olivier appears in the film at the ridiculously early age of 20 or 21.

The ladies come back from Bradford at the disgustingly late hour of 7pm. John and I hurry through piles of tomato sandwiches, laced with the occasional lump of cheese. Dear Denny rings and says she's honouring us with her presence at this evening's orgy at the Cow & Calf. We all meet in the Hare & Hounds and Denny looks gorgeous after all these weeks of seclusion. She tells me that her new boyfriend is called Adrian. He's 19 and he's got blond hair. I have her on about him. The ______are the biggest pair of bitches to inhabit the hills and valleys of the County of York since the likes of Barbara Castle and Coun Joan de Carteret, sometime Lord Mayor of Leeds, dwelled in the area. Denny and I are alone all evening and it makes a pleasant deviation from the usual male companionship which is a bore. Drink lager all night and John brings Christine Dibb and myself home at 2.30.

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Wednesday November 13, 1974

Edward III, born 1312. Glorious day, excluding the weather. Up with the larks at 7.30 and everyone thinks I'm mad when I insist on going into Bradford to see the Queen's progress through the city. Her Majesty last came here in 1954 so it's not every day that one receives the opportunity to stand about for four and a half hours in pouring rain making a fool of oneself. The Queen arrived at 10.15 and she came into my view fifteen minutes after her arrival. Dressed in peach coloured orange with a matching hat she looked beautiful. And beautiful isn't the wrong word here. On TV or in photographs one wouldn't say this 48 year-old woman looked 'beautiful' but when ones receives the opportunity to see her in the flesh, her radiance and fantastic complexion knocks all sense of reason out of one. Got a thorough soaking, and in order to dry out I went to Denny's and the warmth of WH Smith's. We decide to go for lunch together, and at 12 we meet her friend, Lucy, who shares a flat with Judith B, my passion in June/July. We are caught up in a crowd near the Town Hall and before we know what is happening we are in the midst of one of the Queen's 'walkabouts'. A massive crowd shrouds her from our view, but by leaping about at regular intervals I get a view of the Queen and can hear her voice as she speaks to people in the crowd. You can imagine how emotional Denny was. And even Lucy, who didn't look interested at first, went away with a brand new lease of life. The girls go back to work at 1pm and I wait outside the Town Hall (flying the Royal Standard) whilst the Queen lunches. At 2 a massive crowd is gathered to see the Queen's departure for Halifax. An unforgetable, fantastic day.

Home at 3 to devour six pancakes and see 'The Forsyte Saga' on TV... followed by an hour long soak in the bath. See a film which shows a woman giving birth in the opening scenes 'Silly Cow' or something, they called it. An appropriately crude title.

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Tuesday November 12, 1974

Rhoda Wilson born 1850. Eileen and I go into town at lunchtime where I buy a film for her camera. I expect to capture several shots of Her Majesty during tomorrow's royal progress through the streets of Bradford. Can't wait.

Pleasant afternoon. Take two pictures of the girls. Sarah is a darling. She tells me her Dad is the head postmaster at York. No doubt that morsel of information was an invitation to seduce her passionately behind a filing cabinet, whilst the glories of having a head postmaster for a father-in-law was supposed to play on my sense for self-advancement & ambition.

After tea I have a driving lesson with Harry until 8. Don't do too bad, though the weather is deplorable and we see a nasty road accident down Apperley (ever after) Lane, close to the home of the late Judith Beevers - and several fire engines and the police were in attendance, no doubt pinching the sacks of sugar which had made up the load of the lorry involved in the unseemly affair.

See 'Jennie Lady Randolph Churchill' and the death of Lord Randolph on the ITV programme. The so-called young Sir Winston looked hideous.

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Saturday October 12, 1974

Lynn wakes me at 7 and I feel absolutely shocking. Lay on the dining room floor - eyes tightly closed - wishing that last night had never happened.

Go to the YP. Sarah says I look shocking. I blame myself entirely. Leave at 12. Home by half past. Have lunch which revives me slightly, then lay on the bed for a few minutes to recouperate.

John suggests we go to Otley and (strangely) I agree. I say strangely, because walking around the market towns of West Yorkshire on a Saturday afternoon cannot be the best hang-over cure. We go, but find nothing worth buying in the town's only boutique. Decide to move on to Bradford.

A beautiful afternoon and I am in shirt-sleeves all the time. Go see Lynn working at the British Home Stores - she's quite busy, then go see Denny. I get a pair of trousers, but John comes home empty handed. A bomb-scare in the Arndale Centre held things up for a few hours. Give Sue and Peter a lift home at 6. (Cousin) Jackie and Lynn arrive home together, and by 8 we are in the Hare & Hounds. Lynne M doesn't come until nearly 9 because Chris was ferrying her and Peter M. Move on to the George & Dragon where I have a tremendous laugh with Dave L. Nobody wants to go to the other Jackie's party, and therefor Chris, dear Lynne, Peter and I go back to the Mather residence where we stay till 2.30.Mr & Mrs Mather are like somebody from the 'Forsyte Saga', but the most decent future possible in-laws anyone could wish for.

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Tuesday August 27, 1974

Lynn wakes me at 10.30 saying Denny is on the phone. I stagger downstairs. Denny says she can get a weekend trip to London for two - completely free - this weekend. I say I think I'm working on Saturday but just to be certain I ring the YP. Carol informs me that I am on all day on Saturday which puts paid to to all possibility of a weekend in our glorious capital city. Denny isn't too bothered and says she'll ring me later this evening. Lynn departs to work at 10.45.

At lunch Dad says he is to take the job with the CID after all. I don't know when he takes up the appointment, but we are all very pleased he's taken it.

At 2 I go into Guiseley with my library book 'Queen Mary' which was due back last month. The library however is closed for Bank Holiday.

Go to Bradford where I see that the Barbra Streisand's film 'For Pete's Sake' is on at the Odeon and make my mind up to see it tonight. Call in to see poor Denny, who is mad about the London weekend, but she says she'll go to the cinema with me. Then go see Lynn, working busily at the British Home Stores - she says she'll also come to the flicks, but then changes her mind because of a pre-arranged date with Ronnie._____. Go to the Wimpey Bar with Denny for a greasy cup of tea- at 49p each. To the Odeon at 5.30 - both films are excellent, but 'For Pete's Sake' is great and Denny enjoyed it especially. Both get the 55 at about 10.30 - and Denny goes to Yeadon, where she intends getting a taxi. Home by 11. Hear from Lynn that Marita rang.

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Thursday August 30, 1973

It all became official today. June notified me. Got up at 6.45. Bill sends Andy and me to do the bus shelters at Rawdon traffic lights - horrid job indeed. After break he sends me to Henshaw to paint all the clothes posts. Laughable day. Brian Jilkes is such a scream.

The weather reminds me of April. Too wet to paint (fantastic). Do not finish my task by 4.0 which means I will have to complete it tomorrow. However, I intend going into school tomorrow at 10.30 to see Groves. MM and Christine are also going in. At White Cross on the way home, I see Dad in the car, and so I left my bust to accost my chauffeur. Mother is with him. She tells me of a letter awaiting from June. As I imagined, she never wants to see me again.

Lynn and I go to Bradford Library at 7.30. She joins in order to obtain suitable literature for her CSE projects. By coincidence, I joined the library one year ago today. Home at 9.15. Sit with a martini reading a biography of Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth, a mistress of King Charles II.

Feeling horrid about June. But I cannot beg her to take me back. What wrong have I done?

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Friday July 6, 1973

A hazy, warm day. Go to school at 10.0. Sit with Vilma Crossfield and catch two horrid bluebottle flies in a coke bottle. They are repulsive little creatures. June arrives at 10.45. Fantastic being able to see her again - sit together until 11.30 Walk to the bus stop and have a romantic interlude in the bus shelter. Catch the 33 bus at 12.10. Arrive Guiseley at 12.20. Not seeing June again until Sunday evening when she will be 17 years old!

Meet Mother at 12.30 outside Guiseley Railway station. See Mrs West leave on a Leeds train. Catch a train to Bradford at 12.45.

On arrival we have a good lunch - fabulous piece of steak. On leaving the restaurant a torrential rainstorm is let loose upon us. I am in shirt sleeves and Mum is a sleeveless-dress. Shop until 4.15. I find no decent shoes. Mama gets fitted out in a pretty outfit including a large hat - Mother never wears hats!

Arrive Guiseley at 4.45. Mr Melville gives us a lift home. Go to CW at 7.30. Les is once again playing at chef. Sue goes out leaving us to the job.

Home and in the bath by 12.30. Feeling really sorry for Brian and Valerie who, by the look of things, will be marrying in pouring rain. Sit in bed reading until my hair dried.

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Saturday June 9, 1973

Go to Bradford Library and try to get 7 books but am allowed only 4. Come home 2.0. o'clock.Have lunch. Go to Yeadon. John and I buy two records. Home in order to see 'Dr Who'. Watch the first hour of the 'Man from U.N.C.L.E.' film. Walk to CW at 7.o. Busy from 9 till 11.30. Talk with Sue R. She says: "Wouldn't it be funny if Princess Anne was pregnant". We all laugh. Buckingham Palace would of course deny it right up to the last minute - one can't believe a word they say these days.


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