Sunday June 3, 1973

Get up at 11. Mum makes lunch. Very nice - but I don't really like curries. Have wine which Mrs Smith brought back from Dusseldorf. Major Smith gave me £2 for cutting the lawns. Can't be bad.

Watch a film in the afternoon. Do a Bismarck essay. Mama rings Auntie Hilda and invites herself to Pudsey for tea. Finnish the essay and go to Pudsey - arrive 5.30. Uncle Tony in best of spirits as usual. Have tea and look around the garden. Uncle is worried about the apple tree and says it may have to be cut down. The old garden wouldn't be the same without the tree, which is now 35 years old. Mum doesn't remember the garden without it. Mum, Dad, Auntie H and Uncle T go out at 8.30. We have a laugh with Karen's record player. They get back from the pub at 11 and I argue with Dad and Uncle Tony...about the monarchy (what else).

Come home at 1 o'clock.

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Saturday June 2, 1973

Twentieth anniversary of the Coronation of the Queen. John wakes me at 4.30. Have a cold wash whilst he fills the flasks of coffee. Sun rising in the sky - a fabulous day. Arrive at the Station Hotel, Guiseley, 5.15. The coach collects us at 5.30. June gets on at Horsforth at 5.55. Beautiful journey down. Arrive London 10am. We three make our way to Buckingham Palace. Sun is now red-hot. Very large, colourful crowds on the Mall and Constitution Hill. Stand to the right of the Victoria Memorial. See the Queen Mother, Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Margaret, Princes Andrew and Edward, Lord Snowdon, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones leave for Horse Guards Parade in open landaus. Very clear view. See Her Majesty and Prince Philip leave. Have a laugh with the local police and speak to an old dear who was standing in the same place and saw HM leave for her coronation 20 years ago today. Took photographs of the Royal Family on the balcony. Leave the palace at 2 and to see the statue of Eros in Piccadilly. Go to the Tower of London and look around until 6. Go to Trafalgar Square for tea. June throws sandwiches at the pigeons, and we look around the fountains, etc. Go back to the Tower where June and I queue for an hour to see the Crown Jewels - beautiful. I last saw them in 1967. Also go round the armoury - I don't like that sort of stuff but June does. Go to Downing Street and see the Serpentine then walk back to the monument of "The Grand old Duke of York". Go back to the Tower and sit outside a new pub. John and I have beers and June has a Britvic. Coach comes at 8.55. Leave at 9. Stop at Leicester at 11 - John, June and I photographed in a booth - hysterical! Arrive home 1.30. Lynn enjoyed working for me. Tell Mum and Dad about our adventures. Go to bed at 2am.


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Friday June 1, 1973

Letter arrives from June. The best one she's sent me yet. Ah well! The first of Flaming June! June is busting out all over! (The month of course and not dearly beloved). Get up at 10. Go to shops with Mama who is only just recovering from her illness. Weather is perfect again - hope it lasts for tomorrow.

Lynn and Sue arrive home from Kettlewell. They were involved in a nasty road accident on Tuesday, but neither of them were hurt. Sue was only shocked a little bit.

Have haddock for lunch.

Go to CW at 7.30. Very quiet. A drunken couple sit about until 1.10am. Sue, full of apologies about the late hour, rushes me home at 1.20. I have to be up at 4.45am. Mum is very concerned. She had saved me some fish and chips in the oven. Very greasy but sustaining. Go to bed at 1.45 looking forward to tomorrow.

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Thursday May 31, 1973

Revise all day. Or try to ...


Listen to this Tony Blackburn cracker:

Fred: "Ah well, these little things are sent to try us".

Bob: "What, Judges?"

Wednesday May 30, 1973

Got up at 7.30. Switch on the tv and watch the arrival at King's Cross of the Royal Family from Balmoral - the Queen and Prince Philip, Anne and Mark, Andrew and Edward and several corgis. I find it hard to believe. It all seems too much of a hurried engagement for the Royal Family. The papers are full of it all.

At 10 I went down to Grange's and bought 3 tickets for Saturday - and three newspapers to study the engagement. Read until 2. Have a sandwich. Listen to Princess Anne and Mark talking about their engagement on the radio. Revise until 5.30.

Back to CW again. Sue stays upstairs all evening. Toffer and I do all the cooking - ten couples all came in within three hours. We relax at 11 45 feeling very proud. Home by 1 o'clock.

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Tuesday May 29, 1973

Princess Anne and Mark Phillips are engaged! The warning that an important announcement was to be made came on the 6 o'clock news. I was at work when the official bulletin came. It's a surprise to everyone...and after all those denials! No announcement of the wedding date is yet made.

Get up at 10. Mum still feeling unwell. I go to the shops and buy some fish for lunch. We eat when Dad comes home at 2. Read AJP Taylor on Metternich in the afternoon - I begin to feel unwell, but recover by 6 o'clock when I go to the CW. Judy, the American, is still working. Quite a busy evening, but pleasant. Toffer brings me home at 1.10. Sit with the radio listening for the news, because I had not yet heard the announcement from the palace. Then at 2 o'clock on Radio 2 I heard it. Went to bed.

The couple will be on the balcony at Buckingham Palace on Saturday.

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Monday May 28, 1973

Bank Holiday Monday. The good old Duke of Windsor died one year ago today. Brings to mind my trek down to see his lying-in-state.

Lynn is working in my stead on Saturday when we go down to London. She intends taking over from me in September.

At 1 o'clock go to CW. Work until 6.25. Quite busy. Sue pays me £2. Come home and watch a film of the Coronation, 1953. Have a bath at 9. Bed at 10.30. How's that for an early night!

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Sunday May 27, 1973

A real scorcher. Mum, Lynn, Sue, John and myself sit from 11 till 2 on the lawn. Mum has too much sun and feels unwell. Make an attempt to read Adolf Hitler. Mum, reading the paper, tells me of a trip from Leeds to the Trooping of the Colour on Saturday. I immediately ring and book 2 seats for John and myself. At lunch I think about June and whether she would like to come with us? She rings at 4 and I tell her of the trip - she agrees immediately to come with us. Fantastic! June and myself actually going to see the Queen!

Have tea. Dave rings at 7. We decide to go out. He comes in the car at 8 - and go to see June at Horsforth. No one is in at her house. Go back to Dave's and then collect John. Go back again to June's. Her mother and father are in. Fabulous people. Mr Bottomley is an artist. He offers me a cigarette and I complement him on his artistic capabilities. Mrs B is a real homely sort. Leave 10 minutes later. The Emmotts is packed out. Beautiful evening. Ivy doesn't have her coat on - the weather must be good. Pick up Peter Hurst and go to the Fleece. Chris and MM are in. Linda, Glenn and Julian Bolton are in a corner. Dave and I sit with them. Reminisce with Julian about old times at Fieldhead. Evidently, I gave him four old pence to pinch the school subuteo soccer pitch - but he sold it to somebody else for a few pence more! I never got my brass back!

Dave brings us home at 11.30. Everyone is on way to bed.

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Saturday May 26, 1973

Revise Napoleon (the 1st) all day. Do an essay entitled: "Enough was never enough", is this a fair judgement of Napoleon I?" Read AJP Taylor's essay on the thing. I hate Taylor. It was he, last year on tv, who said that he wouldn't even have employed Queen Victoria as a cook! The dirty, republican swine!

Fairly warm day. Go to CW at 7 o'clock. Exceedingly busy. Sue gets a bit flustered but, after all, it's understandable. Home by 2 o'clock.

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Friday May 25, 1973

Do Economics homework until nearly 4.0 this morning then go to bed until 8. Go on the 8.30 bus to Benton. Christine very tired. June, bless her, stays in bed until 11, having no lessons until 11.45. We do Economics. Christine and I are too tired - can hardly read our finance books. Surely, the most boring book ever written. Mr Ayling was in good humour. We laugh about last night - mine and Christine's jig caused a sensation.

June arrives for lunch. We stay at school at lunchtime and sit out in the red-hot sun. June does English in the afternoon. Dave, Christine and Holmes played chess. I revised with Carol Bailey. At 4 we pinch Tiff's shoe - and chase about until 5.30. Christine and I have such a good laugh. Go home after seeing June off. Not going out again until after the 'A' levels - or at least we aren't going to make a serious move to go out.

Go to the CW. Sue and Toffer in very jovial mood. Come home at 1 o'clock in the morning.

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Thursday May 24, 1973

It's the Profumo Affair all over again! Yes, Mr Heath's government is falling down about his head. Yesterday, Lord Lambton, the former Earl of Durham, resigned from the Defence ministry after admitting to drugs charges and do's with prostitutes. If this isn't enough, the 55 year-old Leader of the House of Lords, and Lord Prvy Seal, Earl Jellicoe, a godson of George V, today also resigned after being cited in the prostitute thing with Lambton. The news on tv has been really juicy these past two days!
The main question is, have they been forced, through blackmail, into leaking government secrets? Especially Lambton at the Ministry of Defence. Very, very embarrassing for Heath.

A really beautiful day. June and I really looking forward to tonight. June goes home at 3 to wash her hair. Dave goes home for his gear because he has to stay the night at Willie's in order to let W do the driving - him not having past his test yet. Go down to the employment exchange and get my passport - nearly leaving my birth certificate on the counter.

Willie brings me to Guiseley and then drives on with Christine, Elke, Dave, and Dietrich to Addingham where they have tea with Cowie. Dave and Willie pick John and I up at 8.0 we go on and pick up June, Hursty and Dale. Go to the Midland Hotel, Ilkley, and then do all the pubs going up the hill towards the Cow and Calf. Arrive at the Cow and Calf at 10. Christine not well at all. Have whisky with ice. June looks irresistible. Go to the Intercon. John dances until 2 without once leaving the floor. A fantastic evening. Come home in two trips. Christine and I do a silly dance whilst waiting for Willie from the 1st journey. Such a hysterical hour it really was.

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