Sunday June 10, 1973

Whit Sunday. HRH Prince Philip is 52. Get up at 7am. Feeling full of cold. My sinuses playing me up. Revise Gladstone until after 8. Drift off back to sleep until 12. Over lunch we discuss Italy. Go upstairs for a bath at 2.

Good old Prince Philip is 52 years old today - one noticeable thing about the duke is that he never ages. He always looked 50 - even when he was 25.

Revise until 8pm. Watch a film - very good. Revise until 12. Come to bed at 12.

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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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Friday June 8, 1973

Revise until 12.30. Go to the Yew Tree pub in Otley with June and Janet Roots. Andy Graham, Pee Wee, and Kim Dean are playing darts. Go to the river at 3. Very hot and humid. Dave and Christine arrive. Go on the river in boats until 4.30. I feel very irritable. Exams looming up. Dave takes us home in his car at 5. Drop June off at her sister Christine's on Netherfield - where she goes for tea. Take Christine and Stephen Holmes to Horsforth.

Not going back to school until Thursday morning.

Go to CW at 7.30. Sue and Toffer hear my news about me going to Brian's wedding on July 7. They're not upset about it. Busy until 1. Come home and go straight to bed.


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Thursday June 7, 1973

Revise all day. Do Economics lesson. Come home after standing with June at the bus top until 5.30. Groves, passing by, laughs at us holding hands. Revise until 8.30. Listen to records with John. Watch 'Jason King'. Come to bed at 12.30.

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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?"