Sunday May 23, 1976

Rogation Sunday. Drive home from Marilyn and Carol's flat at about 8.30. My eyes pour with water and itch. Eileen, Michael and Helen are the only survivors, or so it seems. Christine & Roger are in Mum & Dad's bed, and Denise and Peter are in Lynn & Sue's room.

We make breakfast - Eileen and me that is - and one by one they drift downstairs. My cat fever soon passes and breakfast is followed by a wrestling match between Christine & Roger. She was so drunk last night. It's my first real conversation with Roger, who isn't half as bad as he likes to make others believe.

Helen goes off and Keith makes an exit with Denise in the direction of the moors. They get back an hour or so later and make breakfast for themselves.

By 12.30 Eileen and Michael have gone, and at 1pm I stagger into bed. I am woken ten minutes later by Carole on the phone. She chats about last night. She didn't attempt to do herself in. All she did was cut her finger on a Martini bottle which she accidentally dropped on the drive. She says she knows I hate her, which just isn't true, and goes on to say she will always love me. I don't say anything of importance andgo back to bed. Can't sleep at all and get up for good at 2pm. Watch a Shirley Temple film with Keith who comes at 2.30. We drive over to see Denise and the three of us go to Harrogate's Valley Gardens in the spitfire. It's something of a squeeze but we have a laugh. The fresh air did a lot to revive me. Keith and Denise are hand in hand all afternoon _________________. Back to her place for 6.30 and home for 7 o'clock. Bid farewell to Keith until next weekend. Chris and Pete call in at 8.15 just as Lynn and Sue return home. The three of us go to Linton and then to Grassington. End up in the Fish Dish in Ilkley at 11.15. A good evening out which I undertook with my fly open until a gent let me know I was being indecent in the Devonshire.

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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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Friday May 21, 1976

Meet Denise and Marita in the Central at 12.30. Eileen joins us at 1pm. Have a few drinks and discuss plans for the party. Marita probably won't make it because she's going to MM's at Sheffield.

At 2.15 Denise and I move on to Parker's wine bar and get through a full bottle of white wine in 45 minutes. Talk about our relationships with the opposite sex. ______.

At 5 o'clock we get the train to Guiseley and have a cup of tea with Mum & Dad. At 7 we both go to the Hare & into the steak bar. My steak is too well done, but otherwise it is very good. Through in the bar all the brigade are assembled. Even Tony is in. Denise and I sit with him and we end up singing 'Jerusalem' and 'Onward Christian Soldiers!' Helen joins us too. Chris is in with Carole, John and Maria.

Tony brings me home at 11. We are going to Oakwood Hall on Thursday I think. Feel rather drunk. See 'The Third Man' on TV. Bed after 1am.

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Tuesday May 18, 1976

A warm, pleasant day. Go into town at lunchtime and collect the two Elton John records and at the same time order 'Make Me Smile' by Cockney Rebel for Christine. Why can't a chap buy a ladyfriend a gift occasionally? Nip unaccompanied into the Ostlers and have a couple of lagers.

Main topic at work is the coming events of Saturday night. Darryl Wills says he's coming when he hears that Sarah is attending. If she brings Peter, her boyfriend, we'll all be done for, but knowing Sarah I can see her turning up in a single capacity just to please me (wishful thinking).

Mr Monkman was buried today at 2.30. Dad and Ernest Blackwell represented the Hawksworth Lane residents, but I didn't fancy the idea at all. Funerals are not things one should rush into are they?

David rings at 7 o'clock to say his Dad is in hospital following a mild heart attack! God Almighty! That family is in a bad state! Mr Lawson always appears to be such a healthy chap too. He comes up to our place at 8.30 (David) and we go to the Queen's on Apperley Lane to meet Marita and Denise for a few drinks. It made a change going out on a Tuesday. We had a few laughs. David goes back into hospital on Friday and doesn't think he'll be well enough to come on Saturday.

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Thursday May 13, 1976

Pay day. Meet Dave B for lunch at the Ostlers. Purchase the LP 'Elton John's Greatest Hits' and ordered 'Island Girl' and 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight'. Busy time really. Lunch 12.30-2pm. Writing it all in brief because I cannot be bothered with detail. Home on train at 6pm and hear that Harry Monkman died at Falmouth in the night. I last spoke to him a week last Wednesday when he passed comment that his lawn was in a far better condition than ours. He'd just put tons of fertilizer all over his, at great expense, and I'm saddened that he'll never see the lush growth that his labours will undoubtedly produce. He must have been 80, and I feel a bit sorry for Maud, who is almost blind. I was never fond of him.

Ring Dave L who came out of hospital today. He will be out and about tomorrow night - but no alcohol whatsoever. Glad he's home. Probably going to see 'Cabaret' on Saturday. Dave B brings me the 'Who Loves You' LP from Denise. She bought me it in return for the Cow & Calf excursion last week. Play both LPs - they're really great.

Hear that Uncle Peter came for lunch today. He's brilliant - salt of the earth.

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Sunday May 9, 1976

3rd after Easter. In contrast with yesterday it is wet, cold and dismal. A typical boring Sunday.

Denise rings at mid-day and says she's going to see the David Bowie film this afternoon and cannot come up to see me.

Do nothing but eat all day. Sometimes I wonder why my apetite is so large. Must be all this sexual activity and generally dissipated way of life. No such bloody luck!

See the D.H. Lawrence film 'Virgin and the Gypsy' which I first saw years ago with David L. A good film, but my memory of it was that it was much more 'dirty'. However, what is 'dirty' at 15 is very often tedius and insignificant at 21. Yes, it's senility creeping up on me.

Ring Chris and he says he took Carole to the Craven Heifer yesterday. He didn't go into great detail but tells me she was more 'cheerful and back to her usual self'. John and Maria went too. No doubt my name was dirt.

Bed at 11.40pm. Read P.G. Wodehouse's 'Service with a Smile'. Very funny indeed.

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Saturday May 8, 1976

A scorching hot day. 80F degrees in London and near that temperature up in the provinces.

Get up late and sit in the garden with P.G. Wodehouse, Mum and Lynn. David B comes up at 1.30 and we all have lunch together. Just as I was about to tuck in the phone rings and it's Carole. She hasn't gone to London because her Uncle Robert is having financial difficulties. She still sounds down in the dumps but I do not arrange to meet her. Back in the deckchair in the garden and an hour later CB drives up to lend me a fiver she promised me yesterday. She's going out with Roger tonight and so I won't be seeing her until next weekend.

Denise rings at 6 o'clock to say Peter is giving her a lift to the Hare at 8.45, and she adds that Chris is taking Carole out tonight! Quick worker. Carole rang Chris at lunchtime and she more or less twisted his arm. God knows how they'll get on together. I'll contact him tomorrow for a full unabridged match report.

Go to the Hare at 9 and Peter comes in with Denise ten minutes later. None of the
crowd in the Hare. Peter goes off with his cronies and at 9.30 just Denise and I are left wondering what to do. Ring for a taxi and go up to Oakwood Hall - £5.50 return. Horror of horrors though for on our arrival they don't let me in because I'm in jeans! We go on to the Cow & Calf for a further quid. £6.50 just to go to the bloody Cow! Disgusting evening. Never have I seen so many dregs of society under one roof. A revolting experience indeed but despite all this Denise and I try to enjoy ourselves. Peter comes in with his cronies but they keep themselves to themselves. Home at 2.30 and Dad arrives at about the same time.

Read P.G. Wodehouse in bed until the book falls from my hands.

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Wednesday May 5, 1976

I cannot believe that the events of the past few days have really taken place. Carole trying to kill herself? And God it is all my fault. If I had not ended everything she would never have contemplated such action. But no amount of wrist slashing will make me go back on my decision. How could anyone go out with a girl knowing that any upset or setback could result in her trying to do away with herself?
She must be unbalanced. I feel sick about the whole business.

Woke up at 8.30. Mum tells me she and Dad may go see Carole this lunchtime on my behalf. I will never go. Get up at 9 o'clock and want to ring someone. Chris is having a morning in bed and won't come to the phone; ring Denise, and she is on day-off, & so I'm totally foiled. Should I blame myself? Did I give her a false impression all those months? Did she expect more from me than she received? I have always made my position quite clear, but she may not have understood. She is not the perceptive kind. Poor girl.

Sit alone in complete silence for what seems like ages. Feel numb and sickened off.

Peter and Chris come up at 12.30 and I tell them the news. They are shocked. Chris says she must need pyschiatric treatment. They try to assure me that I am not to blame. The three of us go the Commercial for lunch and then to collect CB at 2.30.

Go see David in hospital and he looks greatly improved. Denise and Marita call in to see him and I tell them about Carole. __________________________. Home at 4.30.

Dad went to see Carole this lunchtime and found her in a terrible state. He lectures me on my treatment of women, and says the situation has been dynamite for a long time. However, he has no sympathy for what she did & is sickened by it all.

Lynn & Susan go see Carole this evening and I go to the Hare & Hounds with John, CB, Pete and Chris. CB says she and Chris have more or less finished but that they're both waiting for the first one to make a move.

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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 April 10, 1976

Carole and I go for a ramble through Hawksworth this afternoon in the sun. Both wear our bomber jackets. She is cheerful today. Call in to see John & Maria after 3, but only Molly is in. She keeps us talking until nearly 5 o'clock.

To Oakwood Hall at 8.30 with Denny and Tony in the Jag. Susan and Peter come too. A good night, but Graham Pease, whose birthday party it is supposed to be, doesn't turn up. Denny and Tony have a difference of opinion about something and look daggers at each other for hours. Keith B comes along and takes Sue away from Peter for the night which amuses me. Peter's face was a sight to behold. The girl on the posters all over the walls is actually on the dance floor. It's amazing how photographs can be touched up. One thing's for sure, she's certainly had her share of 'touching up' from the look of things.

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Saturday April 3, 1976

In brief: My Birthday Party at Oakwood Hall.

Carole and I go to Leeds before lunch and spend about three or four hours messing around in the shops. I bought a blue cheesecloth shirt with the money Mum and Dad gave me this morning. We have our usual squabble in Miss Selfridge and Carole ends up the owner of a Spanish-style green blouse - which she loathes. Women!

Home at 4 to find Dad mending the telephone and see Jackie, who arrived three hours earlier.

Later: Coach arrives at 9.20 and 19 people travel. MM and Marita in the car. Even Denise and Tony came. The place was horribly hot all night and packed to the brim. I attempt to get intoxicated and only got slightly pissed, spending £8 in the process. Lynn and David didn't come, which left something of a gap but otherwise all was a great success. Christine B, Chris and Peter bought me a 'Southern Comfort' pub mirror - brilliant. Back to Pine Tops - that is only family and Dave L for Jackie's sausage sandwiches and a photographic session. Hysterical just isn't the word.

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Wednesday March 3, 1976

Ash Wednesday. Mum and Dad went to Kirby Malzeard yesterday and offered the owner £28,000 for the place. He's had an offer of £32,000 from a York family and £30,000 from an unknown person or persons. Despite all this Dad is still confident that we might get the Henry Jenkins.

I have done nothing about John's stag party which is set for March 11. No doubt we'll end up at Cinderella's, but the mini bus wants booking, &c.

It will be weird when John is no longer at home and a bedroom all to myself for the first time in twenty years will take some getting used to.

Home at 5 o'clock. A letter from Denise awaits my attention. She has confirmed the cancellation of John and Chris's booking for the holiday and has put quite a funny letter together. The thought of having to pay up for the holiday at the end of next month is horrifying. I have saved up £10 so far which, if nothing else, is a beginning. Lynn rings Denise at about 8 o'clock and I also have a quick word with her. She's coming to Lynn's party on Saturday & is thrilled at the prospect of meeting Uncle Harry once again. She hasn't seen him since September '74 in Windsor.

Carole rings. She's having more bother with Mrs Phillips. Evidently, the old cow went visiting a neighbour who is sick and offered to do all her washing and ironing. The saintly Lady Phillips returned home weighed down with fiflthy underwear and other sundry items of a laundry nature, but instead of doing it herself she dumped the lot on Carole's bed and made her wash and iron it before giving her any tea. Carole says, quite rightly, that she doesn't mind washing her own knickers, but she cannot see the fun in laundering old Mrs McCaffrey's - especially on an empty stomach.

See the Barry Humphries Show on BBC2 at 9.10 which is hilarious. Come to bed at 10.30 or so in order to avoid the 1976 US Presidential Election campaign on the BBC. It seems likely that Jean Harlow and Shirley Temple will be running for the Democratic nomination and the late Walt Disney is becoming a worry for President Ford.

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Friday February 6, 1976

Twenty-four years ago today Princess Elizabeth learned in Kenya that she had become Queen of the United Kingdom & Head of the Commonwealth, &c.

A night at home in what seems like the first time in many, many years. John took me down to the bus stop at 8.30 and I waited for a few minutes for Carole, who comes on the bus. We walked up the lane together and sat watching television with Mum, Dad, Sue and Peter. Some bright spark suggested going to the off-license for a few bottles and for fish and chips. The venture cost me and Mum £3 between us, and I decide it would have been cheaper to go get drunk in the Hare & Hounds.

I attempted to review my financial situation tonight and decide that £10 a week hidden away will give me my annual holiday without much trouble.

I rang Denny about John and Chris cancelling, and she says they have definately lost their deposits but I insist that Peter and I still want to go. Admittedly, the wedding and other events will make this year quite expensive, but I don't see why I should have to call off my holiday.

Lynn and Dave get back from the Hare & Hounds at about 10.30 and we all watch a Marx Brothers film which is hilarious. Groucho is still fantastically funny, whereas the rest of the gang are dated and quite humourless now.

Carole is taken home by Dave at 1am or 2am.

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Friday January 16, 1976

I stay in bed until after eleven and wake up feeling greatly improved from my two days break from toiling at the office.

CB rings to discover the nature of my indisposition and I joke with her about going out with Chris again. They went out together last January-February and I remark on the coincidence.

Ring Denny about the holiday booking and she says she and Tony will come up tonight to collect the deposit money.

Denny and Tony come up at 9 and Carole arrives minutes later. I give her the £30 for the deposit and they then took C and I to the Hare for a few drinks. We move on to the Red Lion at Burley-in-Wharfedale where I cut my finger on Tony's car door and at closing time we nip back to Tony's bachelor pad in Burley.________________.

Girls are funny things really. Maria asked Tony when he was going to make a honest woman of Denise & I could have crawled under the carpet. ________________________.

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Wednesday January 14, 1976

I am completely shattered with cold. My nose glows like a lighthouse all day long and I come home and stagger around the place sneezing and wheezing like an 85 year-old. If I see the month out it will be a miracle. It's always the same every January. Christmas is over and done with and it's as if my resistance tries to commit suicide at the thought of no revelry and tinsel for yet another year.

The holiday is settled anyway. I rang Pete at 7.40am to receive his assent to my booking the Pacific Hotel, San Antonio, Ibiza, from June 27 to July 11, 1976. With his assent given I rang Denise, who at once set the whole system of booking into operation. I'm paying my £10 deposit to her tomorrow night.

Carole rings me at work at 4pm. She's still upset about the events of Saturday night and doesn't believe I've forgiven her foolishness. A child she is, nothing more, nothing less. No argument would have arisen if she had only come to me with her grievance in the first place.

Go to bed at 10pm and decide not to go to work in the morning. John comes in at 10.30 and tells me a horrible tale, the details of which I will recount to you in detail on the next page. But let me say this; something is going to be said and a certain line of action is to be taken which will make certain people waken up round here.

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Tuesday January 13, 1976

I go into work feeling somewhat under the weather. What is more, I feel fed up to the back teeth with everything at the moment and fancy returning to a good bachelor existence.

Carole's had a good innings since last July, and I think it's about time I let someone else have a bat.

I rang Denny and re-booked the holiday once and for all. June/July is when we go.

At home I sit in the dining room all evening busily glueing photographs into a scrap book. It brings back to mind all the good times we had in 1973-4 and makes my present situation seem mundane, boring and dead.

One would think I'd been married for ages by the way I'm going on, but that's the way I feel at the moment.

Retire at midnight with my task still incomplete.

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Monday January 12, 1976

Not a spectacular day at all really. I ring Denny about the San Antonio holiday and she gets us in, provisionally, at the Pacific Hotel. However, when I contact Chris he tells me he is now unable to get July 3-17 for his summer holidays and says he'll ring me tonight. The boy's a failure.

At lunchtime I ring West Yorkshire bus service to make enquiries about the bus service from Kirby Malzeard to Leeds. It isn't as bad as all that and I'm cheered up somewhat by the timetable. Carole rings shortly afterwards and is full of cold. She tells me that she wept herself unconscious in bed last night over the incidents of the weekend and asks me whether I've forgiven her for acting ridiculously. I assure her that I still want to go out with her and arrange to see her at Maria's tonight. I don't think Mrs Mac will like visitors running all over the house at a time like this but Carole insists I go.

Home for tea at 5.45. Sue tells me that Agatha Christie died today. I don't hear anything about this on the news however, and no doubt I will have to wait for the morning papers to announce this sombre news. She was a brilliant writer, and I will always look upon her books with reverence and respect.

Go to Maria's at 8.30 and sit feeling quite ill. A sudden cold seems to have descended upon me. Maria is in high spirits and has taken her grandfather's death very philosophically. Her attitude is that he's in a better place now and he's the last person we should worry about.

John brings me home at 11pm. I've been sat with Carole all night. We didn't say much, but I suppose the trauma of the weekend is very much on our minds.

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Thursday January 8, 1976

I have a half-day and go into town with a Barclaycard that is £1.36 overdrawn. Buy a new suit from Samuel Pepys and get home at about 2pm.

Dad goes out to see his accountant and then takes Mum off to see the Henry Jenkins pub at Kirby Malzeard.

I have the stereo at full blast until John comes in for his tea at 5.30. Mum and Dad are back at 7.30 and are greatly interested in the Henry Jenkins, though they think it's too far away really. Dad is doubtful about our chances of getting the Craven Heifer and besides, they both think the Henry Jenkins is pounds better. We are all going over on Sunday to see it - even Carole and Maria.

I go down to Carole's at 8.30 after meeting Denny in the Hare & Hounds. Tony left her to go off for a meal, and so John befriended her for an hour or so. Carole's Dad's birthday today and he came into the Hare with Mrs P.

Carole and I get the 9.30 bus to Leeds. We're in Cinderella's by 10.30 and have a great time until after 2am. The music was good, and it wasn't crowded at all. We came home by taxi (£3.50) at 2.30 and all was well with the world. Carole wore her new red dress and looked gorgeous. We will have to do this sort of thing much more often.


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Tuesday November 11, 1975

Foggy day again. The YP was uneventful other than an article in the EP re the Prince of Wales's interview with "Woman's Own" magazine about his love life and aspects of his future position. He says that marriage is out whilst he's in the navy, and that 30 is a nice age to do it, if it's to be done at all. The Daily Mail some time ago published an article about HRH at a London discotheque "wrapped around a blonde (who wishes to remain anonymous)". Who that blonde is is anyone's guess. Diana Dors?

At 4.30 I'm leaving the office, minding my own business, when I clapped eyes on the 35 bus. "Ah" I thought "instead of waiting for the 33, I'll go on this one". So I did, and stumbled upon the shapely form of Miss Marita Fountain, who immediately began extracting inmformation about Andy and Linda's engagement. She says that Denise saw Linda, Andy and Christine White in the Stone Trough the other night. I learn that Mr & Mrs White have been entertaining Stuart's Mum & Dad. Xmas engagement?
________________________.Whilst this interesting conversation is developing with Marita I detect several freak jerks coming from the bus turbines. Within minutes we are standing on the kerb in thick fog, cursing the pile of red painted metal that was once a great instrument of public transport. We are joined by Philip Knowles, who never changes. The three of us use our initiative and walk towards Horsforth in order to get the next bus. Our plan fails and at the crematorium we are confronted with a problem. A full bus with only space for one more soul. After searching our hearts Philip and I decide to sacrifice ourselves for Marita's sake. She disappeared over the horizon on a warm, bright, cheery bus full of people singing together and praising the Lord that they are fortunate enough to have been endowed with a seat by the gracious permission of the West Yorkshire Road Car Co.

Philip and I were lucky to get a later bus and I was home in the darkness of night.

News: see that Australia is having difficulties. The Governor-General has sacked the Prime Minister and appointed the opposition leader in his place. Rampaging mobs of Aussie agitators now roam at will through Sydney.

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Saturday October 25, 1975

I get up at 10.30 and after a small breakfast Mum gives me a lift into Guiseley where I meet Carole at White Cross. We go into Leeds and spend a couple of hours chasing around different shops. I buy a pair of trousers and contemplate getting a cardigan but Carole advises me otherwise.

At 1pm we go see 'Love Story' starring Ally McGraw and Ryan O'Neal. Though it's already a few years old I have never seen this so-called 'weepy' classic. Lynn and Sue saw it with Mum and Jackie M years ago, and when Denise and Marita went to see it they had to sit for an hour afterwards to cry it off. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and have to admit to feeling choked at the end. Carole wept like a three year-old. It was just too much for some people when the second feature was about a ten year-old boy dying from an incurable disease. A woman in front of me sobbed very loudly for two hours or more.

Mum had a letter this morning from Dacre Son & Hartley saying that the Craven Heifer at Addingham is on the market for £50,000. She's actually going to see the bank manager on Monday about the possibilities of getting a loan. Addingham is a fantastic place and I intend investigating the Craven Heifer as soon as possible.

To the Hare with Carole at 8.30. She has false finger nails and they look and feel fantastic. I have this erotic thing about being mauled by a lady with beautifully pointed finger-nails. Perhaps it will come one day.

At 10.30 we go to the Craven Heifer with Martyn, Alison, Peter, CB, CD, Chris, Lynn and Dave. Would you believe John and Maria are babysitting!!! The pub is immaculate and just the thing Mum & Dad will like. I can see them in it now.

On to the Cow and Calf until 2am. Christine B and Carole: one word -bitchy.I hate that.

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