Friday July 5, 1974

Blimey, you ought to see Guiseley Railway Station since it's been 'done up' for the great event next Wednesday. After all, it isn't every day that His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, KG, etc, etc, arrives on the platform of our small, yet cosy station. It would be interesting to discover when the last royal visit to our neighbourhood took place.

To the Hare and Hounds with Dave Lawson at about 8. (John too, of course). All the gang join us. Move to the Yorkshire Rose, a pub that I do not like, but John says that the ale is exceptional. I haven't yet acquired a taste for the stuff yet (joke).

Everyone goes to Wikis except Dave, who receives unfavourable reports from his sister. See Andy Dale, who is no longer at Loughborough College of Ed - very pleasant chap. Gets very __at about 1.15 - Carol, Bruno, Christine W and Chris having gone. Peter Mather is hardly the sort of person to sit holding hands with across a candlelit table, if you know what I mean, and John takes the initiative to leave before the closing hour. A lovely warm evening. Home at, on, or in the region of, 2am.

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Saturday June 29, 1974

Up at 9.30 when Dad makes me a coffee, but I don't drink it and fall back to sleep until 11.15. Only Lynn and I are home for lunch with Mummy and Daddy - a 'bit of nice steak' which is cooked too perfectly for an iliterate editorial librarian to recount. Go to a party in Baildon with good old Dave, who rang at 7.30, and of course Andy, Linda and Chris. Get rather kettled with the strong punch, and Dave brings John and me home at 3am. Before the party we went to the Hare, then the Fox & Hounds. Very enjoyable evening, and it was nice seeing Dave again. -==-

Friday June 28, 1974

Ruddy awful day. Up with the early birds and go to the YP in high spirits. Not at all nervous about the ensuing fatal driving test. Have fish and chips at the Albion Fisheries then come home to revise the 'Highway Code' in more detail. Harry picks me up at 2.30 and I have an hour-long lesson in the Horsforth area. Back to the test station which looks official and terrifying, silhouetted against the dark, thundery, stormy summer sky. The chief examiner, a Mr Halliday, gets in the car with me and the test begins at 3.30. Terrible. Half an hour of embarrassing mistakes and idiotic manoeuvering. Back to the test station at 4 in drizzle and rain. Failed. Ah well, better luck next time. Harry comes home with me for tea and everyone offers sympathy.

Ring Marita, who sent me and John 'Good Luck' cards this morning. She offers her commiserations and says that I probably failed because it is the last working day in June, and they have a certain number of people to fail, etc.

Go to the Hare and Hounds at 8. All the gang come. Meet Judy at 9.30. We stay at the Hare before moving on to Wikis, where the three of us, John, Judy and I, spend a pleasant evening. Home at 1.30 and Judy and I stand leaning against the car and discussing all manner of things. Bed at 2. Judy is certainly a lot nicer without Jackie, who can be very overpowering.

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Tuesday June 4, 1974

Chris's birthday. John goes to celebrate at the Hare and Hounds with the mob (inc Peter Mather), but I decide that you don't celebrate a birthday twice in the same week and refuse to be involved in any of the celebratory events of the day. I am sat in the bath when they roll home with plenty of ale and money 'under the bridge'.

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Saturday May 25, 1974

Wake at 8.00am. Feeling quite lively and in very good spirits. Decide to go to the YP immediately before having time to change my mind. Arrive at 9.15 to fins Sarah quite surprised because in my note last night I said they'd see me when they'd see me, or something. Janice was her usual silly self. Nice seeing Carol again. Never did I think for one minute that the day would dawn when I'd be missing her, but I must admit she is very likeable and quite motherly, and most unlike Sarah, who arouses quite different emotions within myself - if she only knew! Think of Judith last night and hope to God we'll see each other again. But I see no use in worrying about it - I've done far too much worrying over females. The papers are full of Marcia Williams becoming a life peeress. God! Wilson will be knighting his tailor next! Meet Chris at the Hare and Hounds at 8.30. Ring Denny who tells me she is going with her lover to the Stone Trough. I am horror struck when she says she is going to Bridlington with him for 2 days. I tell her not to go and she sees the light. She says that tonight she will finish with the blackguard - she's only known him since last Saturday! Judith rings and invites John and I to Apperley tomorrow for a record session in the flat. Of course we'll go. I can hardly wait. Meet at the Yorkshire Rose. We all go on a pub crawl taking in the Royalty, Malt Shovel, and the Hare and Hounds. Bruno brings John and I home at 11.30 - due to the extension because of the Bank Holiday, and I must admit I was rather drunk. -==-

Wednesday May 22, 1974

Dad wakes me at 11.30 - such a nice feeling that I don't have to go to the YP until Thursday night. Hear on the 10.30 that Ball, the man who tried to kidnap Princess Anne in March, has pleaded guilty and the chap is to be detained in a mental hospital 'during Her Majesty's Pleasure', which is quite appropriate. The swine sent a ransom note to the Queen demanding £3m. Lunch at 1.0pm.

Go to the Emmotts with John and sit with Martin V-B until 9 when Chris finally decides to arrive. Almost immediately we go outside to get a bus to the Hare and Hounds - we see Andy passing, and we tell him we are going to Menston and he says he'll take us - Keith rockets past us, skidding in the rain. Go to the H & H until 10.30.

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Saturday April 20, 1974

Wake up at 10 but drop off again until 1. Up for lunch which was very nice. John and Lynn decide to go to Leeds in order that John can buy a new suit. Mum and I then sit with a cup of tea and discuss my financial situation. I say I want a Barclaycard or something, but she is doubtful. Dad thinks it's a great idea. I will look into this next week.

Go upstairs and listen to 'Radio 5' which is put out on the BBC by Eric Idle, of Monty Python fame every afternoon at 2.

John and Lynn home at 5.30. J buys a £30 suit from Burton's - very attractive indeed. After washing my hair, Sue blow waved it for me and she did exactly the same thing for John, which he didn't really like. We ring and Chris and decide to go to the Hare (and Hounds) in Menston and we leave, on foot, at 8. I wear a pair of John's platform shoes and he wears flat ones in order to do justice to his suit. Arrive at 8.30. When Chris arrives, the three of us, have a good time around the juke box. Chris and I keep playing 'When I Fall in Love' by Nat King Cole. John is furious at our taste in music, but Chris calls him a 'narrow minded git.' We all decide to go to Wikis at 10.30 but on leaving the H & H I find I cannot walk in John's shoes, which rub my feet terribly. I ask John to swap shoes, which would have remedied the problem, but he refuses. I decide to go home to change shoes, and then decide not to go back to Wikis. My brother is a swine and he knows it. Talk with Lynn until 2.30. John comes in but I ignore him and go to bed.

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Wednesday April 17, 1974

Up with the larks at 7. Kathleen works wonders with my new rota at the YP. My first night shift begins tomorrow night at 5 until 12. The company is even to pay my taxi expenses which is a marvellous move. It seems therefore that my luck is in full strength this week. Forsee a lazy day tomorrow with no work until 5. Home with Judith who is very high spirits today. Driving at 6.30 - slightly better on last week though I feel as though I will never make a driver of any good repute at all - this fact is mirrored in the distraught face of the instructor. At 7.30 John says he's going out to the Emmotts, having had a conversation with Chris. I agree to go with him.

Andy, Linda, Christine W, Chris and self make up the party. Quite lively discussion. Conversation ranges from hospitals to cars, Napoleon and Josephine (were they really the great love story everyone, except ITV, makes out?). Christine really seems to loathe John now, and he realises this. Chris was moody again and didn't talk much. Christine, John and self have decided to stop going to the Emmotts. We are quite sick of the place now. Both John and Christine like the Hare and Hounds. Home at 11.30 on bus. Write a 'heart rending' letter to June then decide not to post it. She really does create more chaos with my life than everything else put together. Everyone laughs at my infatuation for her. Chris says she is too immature by far to appreciate my feelings for her. He's probably very correct.

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Friday March 29, 1974

Busy day at the YP. Austin-Clarke is still unapproachable and Kathleen cannot see him about my pay, if that is what one can call the mere pitance which I receive at weekly intervals.

Quite a pleasant evening. We all, that is to say John, Andy, Chris and I meet in the Emmotts and then move on to the Royalty on the Chevin, a horrid little pub. From there we move to the Hare and Hounds and then the Fox and Hounds, where we see Laura (strangely disguised with a weird hairstyle) in the company of her university gentleman friend. They all join in the motorcade which winds itself to Pine Tops, where John and I are deposited on the pavement. Inside Mum and Dad watch a programme on privilege, featuring the Duke and Duchess of Bedford. A bleedin' socialist sits making snide remarks about wealth and on being asked his income, it was noted with great amusement, that he earns nearly £10,000 per annum.

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Friday March 22, 1974

Quite a busy day but uneventful. To the Emmotts at 8. Chris, Andy, John, Keith, Paul, Laura with Martin (one of her latest conquests). At about 9 we all go to the Hare and Hounds at Menston and then Andy takes John, Chris and I in his VW to Wikis, where John becomes a fully paid up member. A good time is had by all and we go home at 2 or thereabouts.

Receive a letter from David in Worcester. I tell him, when I reply, that something will be going on at Pine Tops on April 5, my 19th birthday. And by odd coincidence I saw Sandra Lawson in Wikis, with someone other than her husband, and we exchange the usual niceities. John was unusually abrupt this evening and behaved quite hatefully towards the end. We had a good go at each other when we arrived home. Bed 3 -ish.

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Saturday January 19, 1974

Dad wakes me at 6.30. Feel absolutely gone to the world. Deaths door seems very near. Have a shower and listen to a dreadful BBC2 programme. Wake Sue at 7.45 and go for my train at 8. Work is absolutely fabulous. Whilst discussing old people I recall something old Auntie Mary (born 1878) told me about being related to somebody called Jackson who was Lord Mayor of Leeds. On researching this I discover that a William Jackson was Lord Mayor in 1895-6. Knowing Auntie Mary is a reliable source I am enraptured. Jackson went on to become a Member of Parliament. I am the great-great-nephew of a Conservative MP! If I mention this publicly I'll probably be lynched, what with the Three Day Week and the toilet paper shortage. 

 Frank and Marlene and the kids come for tea.Mark brought his Formula One racing cars. 

Frank makes Dad mad by referring to him as 'Uncle Lawrie'. He's only a decade younger than Dad. 

 At 8 John and I go to the Hare and Hounds. Denny and I have a laugh about pretending to be engaged. 

All the mob gathers in honour of the 19th birthday of Linda which takes place on Monday. At 10.30 I go in Philip Cartwright's car to the Cow & Calf. Dance until 2am. The college girls are great fun and we joke about cottage cheese manufacturing! Everyone piles into different cars, and poor Christine W and myself are left in the back of Pete's van. Home at 2.30. Wait in the garage until John comes home with the door key at some later hour. Well, 20 minutes later actually.

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