Monday May 20, 1974

Up at 7.30. See Judith Rushworth at Guiseley Train Station and Pamela. J was in hysterics about my list of possible bridegrooms which I drew up last week. She says she'd like to see more. At the YP I discover that Kathleen is on holiday for a week and that Anne is in charge. She is furious. Ray didn't come in last night and all the filing and work is piled up waiting to be done. She rings Ray and his wife informs us that he is ill. I immediately offer my services for night duty and Anne is greatly relieved. Sarah looks beautiful - the week without seeing her has made me realise just how pretty she is. Leave at 9.10 for home, passing Carol on the way. Mum comes in at 1.0 and we have fish and chips for lunch.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing is the President of France - the youngest in one hundred years. No doubt he'll put Wilson in his place about re-negotiating the terms of entry into the Common Market. M. Mitterrand would have been a better president from the Labour government's point of view, but I am glad the right wing managed to scrape through with a victory. Communists presidents are all very well, but not when they are only 22 miles across the English Channel!

Read Anita Leslie's 'Edwardians in Love' and see that 64 years ago this very day King Edward VII was buried at Windsor. I expect that morsel of information thrills you to bits.

YP at 5 (again!). Quiet and pleasant evening, and go for a drink with my racing correspondent friend. Home at 12.15 to find Mum and Dad drinking coffee. Poor Uncle Bert is seriously ill in hospital again and Auntie Eddy rang from Nottingham & was very upset. Poor Sue took the call and it choked her. Mum and Dad are going to see him at the earliest opportunity tomorrow. Mother has said all along that Uncle Bert was far worse than any of us realised and it now seems she is correct. She says they'll amputate his foot, or even his whole leg, within the next few months, and Mum is invariably right.

-==-

Sunday May 19, 1974

Rogation Sunday. Find the lounge deserted and the camp-bed tidied away. Poor Chris must have regained consciousness in the early morn and decided to go home.

At 1.0 Mum goes for her driving lesson and John and myself follow 2-4. A really hot afternoon which proved most satisfactory driving-wise. Home at 4 with sweat pouring down my back. Sit in a deck chair with Lynn and Christine Dibb, not all in the same chair though, they had a blanket on which to recline. Sue and Peter, having been for a lengthy walk, arrive back at Pine Tops and have us in hysterics - Peter's idiotic shyness_______.

See tv all evening and go to bed at 12. Back to working 9-5 tomorrow and I am not sure that the idea is is appealing to me or not.

"Sugar Baby Love" by the Rubettes or something.

-==-

Saturday May 18, 1974

Lynn and I go to Bradford where I spend £9.50 on a beautiful cheese-cloth shirt and a pair of trousers - long overdue. In Smiths we see Denny working in the travel agency and we spend an hour with her. Lynn and Denny get on so well together it's s shame they don't meet more often.

At 7 I ring round and make plans for the evenings entertainment and Chris says we'll meet at the Hare and Hounds. I ring Denny and tell her to be at Menston for 8. Chris rings back and says: 'We've changed plans, Mig,' which annoys me, and he says the venue is switched to the Dyneley Arms. However, I say that John, Denny and I are going to the Hare and Hounds and we'll probably see Chris later on at Wikis. At the H and H Denny is furious and says that Bruno brought her down and then drove off leaving her outside the pub. But we do enjoy ourselves and John sits with George Waite and Jane Lockyer and the latter gets horribly drunk and sits weeping in the centre of the Tudor Lounge much to John's amusement. Denny and I sit by the juke box and are joined by June's friend, Lorraine, and Christopher North, who I don't like. Lorraine tells me that June got in to Bingley College of Education, which is very nice. Whilst I was 'pointing Percy at the porcelain' Lorraine attempted to extract information from Denny, who played along with the game superbly. I came back and made Denny laugh by telling Lorraine that D and I were 'just good friends' followed by a knowing look and a titter. Lorraine was sent packing her suspicions aroused. No doubt June will soon know of my night out with Denise Akroyd, her arch-enemy. We walk to Wikis, and John follows on the bus. Denny and John are the first to dance, and Chris comes over alone at 12. At 2, Denny is picked up by 'an old friend' of the male sex, who proceeds to monopolise her for the remainder of the evening. Chris, having nowhere to go, comes to our place where I set up the camp bed in the lounge. I collapse in bed at 3 and sleep until 11.30.

-==-

Friday May 17, 1974

Woken up by Dad at 1.15pm! Mum comes home expecting to find the lunch prepared but is sadly disappointed by the sight she receives. Dad is working at 2, so you can imagine the hurry he was in. A boring afternoon and go to the YP as usual. Hear on tv whilst in the office that 30 or so people have been blown to bits in Dublin. Kathleen worked until 10 - and I'm sick of writing about work.

Taxi at 12 to Wikis. Groping about in the subdued lighting I stumble upon Chris and John at a table and then saw Peter Mather, who bought me a drink, Andy and of course Linda, Christine W and Laura. To my surprise I see dear Denny, and we, that is Chris and I, have fun playing with the large zip on Denny's suede jacket. On my way to the bar I bump into Judith, of Apperley Lane fame that is, and we drift into a corner with a couple of glasses and laugh at Philip C and Paul, who come over to try and 'break us up'. At 1.30 she takes me back to her place where I drink coffee and play with a little dog. But no 'goings on' if you know what I mean. Lift home at 3 and she doesn't even let me kiss her goodnight, but we exchange telephone numbers and she says she'll ring me next week. Bed at 3.10.

-==-

Thursday May 16, 1974

Believe it or not I'm still not in the writing mood so you'll have to be disappointed again. However, something just occurred to me which is rather interesting: namely the separation of darling Denny from the 'Jet Set'. She clammed up like an oyster and refused to say why she is no longer spending her weekends with ____.Obviously, the 'Jet Set' are OK, but only in small doses, and I fear Denny is not one for spending her Saturdays trapped in a darkened cinema with David, who according to Denny is becoming even more strange - discarding his trousers in mixed company again and for no apparent reason. I heard on the 10 o'clock news at the YP that the Prince of Wales is to occupy Chevening, a stately home in Kent, which was left to the nation by the last Earl of ____ Damn! It isn't like me to forget a title, but I can honestly say that the late Noble Earl has slipped my memory for the moment, but I can say for certain that his peerage began with the letter 'S'. Ah well, it will come to me sooner or later. Anyway, Chevening may well become as famous as Sandringham one day, that's if HRH lives in it long enough to give it an aura of Royal dignity. Let's home to God he will marry and produce lots of little Waleses within its historic walls. -==-

Wednesday May 15, 1974

Please excuse me today, but I cannot think of anything original to say about my boring, terrible existence. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

-==-

Tuesday May 14, 1974

Do not waken until nearly 12! I really ought to be ashamed of myself. Climb into the bath and put my radio in a suitable vantage point. Hear on the 12.30 news that Dr Coggan will become Archbishop of Canterbury in November. I will be able to tell my grandchildren that the Archbishop of Canterbury once commented on my speedy typing! An unlikely tale I know but I can assure you it certainly happened. Mum home after 1pm, and because it's a beautiful day we decide to sit in the garden. Get the train at 4.20 in Guiseley and spend a quiet evening at the YP. Nothing interesting of any importance and I don't intend writing any more today.

-==-

Monday May 13, 1974

Woken at 9.15 by the phone. It is Kathleen who asks if I was at the YP last night. I say of course not, then realise I should have been at work yesterday and then take a night off in the week. I feel dumbfounded. Kathleen is not at all mad, but she is expecting the complaints to roll in this morning. The fact that my working week begins on a Sunday never entered my head. Dress at 9.30 and then go for a walk into Guiseley. Buy a couple of newspapers and call in at the bank - deposit £4, and walk home feeling quite proud.

Old Mr Monkman comes round at 11 and asks if I can lend him an instrument which levers spark plugs out of sockets. I say I don't know what he's talking about and he'll have to wait and see Dad. Have a coffee and look around for something to read having finished 'Mrs Fitzherbert'. Find 'Have His Carcase' by Dorothy Sayers, which I still have not completed. At about 12 I ring the YP and speak to Kathleen and she says nobody's complained yet, but the night staff don't come into until 5 o'clock. She's taken it very well. This horrible forgetful incident has ruined my day.

Looking in the mirror, which, I hasten to add, is no regular pastime, I realise my hair is in a terrible condition and decide that Wednesday morning is to be the day of judgement. It's five months since I last had anything done with it! Hear on the 1.30 news that Princess Anne was thrown from her horse 'Doublet' at Windsor this morning and that the horse broke a leg and was later destroyed.

Go to the YP for 5. Quiet evening really.

-==-

Sunday May 12, 1974

4th after Easter. Good lunch and feel like a lazy afternoon, which unfortunately cannot be because of driving lesson. I do quite well, but John makes terrible errors throughout the whole of his lesson. It was entertaining anyway.

Mum and Dad go to Marlene's at about 5, and Sue is at Peter's all day.______. I think the boy will shake off his shyness and insecurity within a couple of years.

See tv all evening. Read Mrs Fitzherbert by Anita Leslie. The poor soul married George IV in the 1780s but was never acknowledged in law. Socially however she was always given royal precedence. Bed at 12.


"Waterloo" by Abba.

-==-

Saturday May 11, 1974

Up at lunchtime and do nothing all day. Andy mentioned something about a disco at Benton Park when I saw him last night and John and I decide to go along tonight to see if it's any good. Chris agrees to come, agreeing to meet in the Emmotts first. Sue, Peter, Martyn and Al all come to the Emmotts before going along to Benton themselves. Heavens! Sue isn't 15 until July! I feel guilty about entertaining a sister in a dubious public house four years under the lawful age. See Ivy, who looks ill. She says she hasn't seen June or Sue B for weeks, and last saw them in the Stone Trough, a pub which June never liked. Chris, John and I move on to the Trough, and I had a whisky, which Denny persuaded me to drink at Wikis last night. The Benton thing is a tragedy. See Keith with Helen! She is her usual self. Also see Glynis, Helen Taylor, Vilma and Judith Lea. We leave at 11 and John and I have fish and chips in Guiseley before going home.

-==-

Friday May 10, 1974

Wake up at 10.45 with the alarm clock ringing merrily.(Excuse the handwriting but I am sitting up in bed resting the volume on my knees - not a very satisfactory method at all). Doing nothing until Mother comes home for lunch, then she surprises me by saying she is having a driving lesson at 2 - which means this is the second one this week. She gets so nervous about drivming, so much so that she makes everyone else petrified too.

Go to the YP by train at 4.20. Arrive early as all the girls are just leaving. I have a very good night and finish all my routine work by 8.20! Judith Rushworth rings at 9 and we talk for 15 minutes about nothing in particular. I ring Mum but Sue tells me they're out and I joke with her and Lynn for a further quarter of an hour or so.

Read through the Duke of Windsor's file and am especially interested in the abdication period. The poor Duke of York hated the idea of kingship and from newspaper accounts it seems as though the king and his brother finished up deadly enemies. The refusal to give the duchess the style and title of 'HRH' stems from this rivalry. Anyway, I was very glad to see that Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, now visiting Canada, found time to call on the old Duchess of Windsor, who is visiting New York. Margaret and Edward VIII have a lot in common.

My taxi came at 12 and I was in Wikis at a quarter past. Meet dear Denny at the top of the stairs and she is worried about John, who disappeared about ten minutes before my arrival. I go check the lavatory but he is nowhere to be seen. Have a good deal to drink and have fun with Denny. Judith, the Alfa Romeo girl, comes over and sits with me and I act with great civility considering the way I have been treated. She gives me a lift home and we cry with laughter to see John staggering up the lane at 2.30. Where had he been? I follow him in and discover he'd slept on a wall behind Wikis, after going outside to get some fresh air. A likely tale, but it must be true. Bed at 3am.

-==-