20090420

Wednesday June 6, 1973

Go to school at 9.30. Revise until 11.45. It's beautiful 'exam weather' - always a scorcher at 'O' and 'A' level times. Do Economics. Buy Thirkettle for 50p. Revise Ireland until 4.05. Dave brings me home, and Dad signs his passport forms. Revise until 9. Go to fish and chip shop. Watch 'Special Branch'. Go to bed 11.30.

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Tuesday June 5, 1973

Revise Bismarck and Irish Home Rule at home all day. CW at 7.30. Finish at 11.30. Come home and go to bed after having coffee.

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Monday June 4, 1973

Holiday in the Irish Republic. Chris 18. Get up at 8. Go to Benton at 9. Christine tells me how Philip hit Dale in the Stone Trough on Tuesday last week. She's worried that Dale will take it out on her. He ignores Christine when he finally arrives at 10 o'clock.

Louise and Ray have finished and she is now going out with an Italian living in Yeadon with the unlikely name of Robert! Roberto would be more in keeping with custom wouldn't it!

June prefers to sit with Michael Stott instead of me at lunchtime. Christine and I rescue the stool from the tree. I then put it back. Decide to go home this afternoon and get the 2.30 bus - the sun is extremely hot. Arrive home at nearly 3. Mum and Dad are sitting in the sun.

I have scrambled eggs on toast and revise all evening. Bed at 11.30.

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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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20090419

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 19, 1984

A warm, gentle day. Ally and I took off to town with Samuel at 1pm. We didn't take the pram and I carried baby for two hours, by the end...