Saturday December 17, 1983

 5, Club Street, Lidget Green

Red Lion: Christmas party.

I still feel knackered after a good night's repose. Do you think I'm perhaps on edge about something? Christmas cards come flooding in. I went out before breakfast to buy a Daily Telegraph and I ordered a 10lb turkey from the Co-op butcher. It only cost me £5. Oddly, I haven't heard of any 'turkey shortage' scare this year. At this crucial time we are usally told that all the birds are dying in an epidemic, obviously to inflate the prices of those lucky enough to survive. We went in to town and bought a Christmas tree (with root) for £7. Town was like Hell and we came home after a couple of hours. The IRA have bombed Harrods. Dear God. I went out at 1pm to the Red Lion to help out at the hideous OAPs Christmas party. Old, senile dodderers spluttering turkey and pudding. Some of them, touchingly, wept with joy. Santa Claus came and so too did a Salvation Army band, and Les Gledhill. Chris Wills took Gledhill off to play pool and I worked my arse off. Something's wrong somewhere. The old folk staggered out at 5:30 and I did the bar until 8. Ally collected me in the motor. She was tired. We went home to pork pie and mushy peas. Afterwards we decorated the Christmas tree. Had a few beers and watched 'The Devil Rides Out'. To bed at 12:45. Ally attempted to push me out. What a darling.

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Friday December 16, 1983

 Waltergarth, Station Rd, Horton-in-Ribblesdale

Emmott Arms, Rawdon.

Mum woke us at 7:30 and cooked a breakfast. Just Ally and I ate because they never touch fried food. We said our goodbyes and quit Horton at 8:30. Pen-y-ghent was nowhere to be seen. Drove to the Emmott Arms for our liaison with L. Gledhill. Geoff and Alison (trainees from the Linthorpe) arrived here today to find the place in chaos. Eight people are booked in for Christmas lunch upstairs and no staff were on hand to prepare and so area manager Donna Lea is doing the cooking, and I am the wine waiter. A farce. I have never served wine at tables before, and felt self-conscious as I fumbled around with the bottles. I cannot have been too bad because they gave me a £2 tip. I finished at 2 and attempted to contact Ally, who had pootled off home, to no avail. I continued to try and contact her until after 6, and the most sinister thoughts passed through my mind. I sat upstairs with Geoff until 5:30, and then I opened the pub for him working until 7. Saw Philip Cartwright, who never changes. He was surprised to see me working for Sam Smiths. He relived our Pine Tops Christmas parties from '73 and '74. When I got through to Ally I am told she had been at hospital with Mary (Moore) who had cut her finger whilst carving a joint. Blood everywhere. I was so very relieved to hear her voice. Imagine if I had become a father without a ringside seat? Horrific. Tired and done in. Home. Food. Bed. Who would have ever thought I'd be running the bar at the Emmotts, such a regular haunt of my youth? You wouldn't recognise the place now. Very dismal and dilapidated.

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Thursday December 15, 1983

 5, Club Street, Lidget Green, Bradford

Waltergarth, Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

Fog. We went to Rawdon where I saw my dentist. He charged me £4 to do absolutely nothing but poke around in my mouth. Whatever happened to old Hough? Struck off perhaps, for mauling some poor housewife. By 10:30 we were at Sue's. She gave me a whisky. Christopher looked very grown up in his woolly pullover and he sat on my knee looking at a picture book. He seems an intelligent child, and no quite the lunatic people make him out to be. Sue looked thin and not in the least pregnant. On to Lynn's where the house was like an igloo, only colder. The children were blue with cold and ill-humoured. Lynn complained that she isn't mature, ______ and has no money, and was generally 'low'. Back at home we have a note from Les Gledhill asking me to phone. This I did, and he asked me to meet him at the Emmott Arms at 10am tomorrow. We went up to Horton at 5:30 and dined with Mum and Dad. Afterwards we decorated their Christmas tree and sat by the coal fire. Dad sat weaving the rug we bought him when he retired. Bed after 12.

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Wednesday December 14, 1983

 5, Club Street, Lidget Green, Bradford

Tony.

The old King and Uncle Tony share a birthday today. The old King (George VI) was 40 on the day of Tony's birth. Needless to say we sent a card (not to the old King, which would have been pointless, but to Tony). Sarah C phoned from the YP. She is just the same. Spent the day, the whole day, writing Christmas cards, after having breakfast in bed. Ally cannot sleep these days and was up at dawn pacing the rooms. The toilet has sprung a leak and we now resemble the RMS Lusitania taking in water everywhere. Phoned Dave Lawson. He has bought a house in South Elmsall, and now speaks in a south yorkshire accent. He thought Ally wasn't due until april and gasped when I told him her time is now due. Phoned Dave G. He and Lily have won a 10-day holiday to Mexico, or an island off Mexico, from January 7. Sat by the TV. Coronation Street. Len Fairclough's funeral. Cheese and onion toasties. No word from L. Gledhill and so tomorrow we are escaping to Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

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Tuesday December 13, 1983

 The Red Lion, Thornton Rd, Bradford 8

Club Street.

We left the Red Lion at 12:30 after Chris and Elaine's return. The stocktake showed a £7 defecit, but that's no problem. Chris says he will continue with the ban on our canine friends, and we took our leave and returned to Club Street. Sheryl was in at opening time to deliver her daily 'homage' of 'arse licking'. We made our escape quickly. The King is dead, long live the king, &c. Customers are apt to become unnerved  at the sight of two managers in the pub at one and the same time. Elaine pets and slobbers over her dog, Michael (named after Mike Walker from the brewery), and was so loud that the stocktaker sat with his fingers in his ears. 

At home I had fish and chips. Ally went to mothercraft classes to learn about heavy breathing and stretch marks, and I went out to buy a TV licence. Our licence expired in September and the woman in the post office looked at me aghast as though I was one, or even both, of the Kray twins. Looked at old newspapers and felt cosy at my own home on my own settee. It was odd not to ring a bell and call 'time' at 3 o'clock. News: Sir Keith Holyoake, KG, died last weel. That leaves a vacancy for me. Lady Docker has croaked too. Is Mrs T in her last term as PM? Will those foul peacewomen succeed at Greenham Common? Will Di give birth to twin princes in 1984? Is the NGA doomed? Phoned Mum to say I cannot be definite about visiting on Thursday until I have spoken to Les Gledhill. I do hope we can fit in a quiet weekend at Horton.

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Monday December 12, 1983

 Red Lion, Thornton Road, Bradford 8

Switzerland arrived at Thornton Road. I was up at dawn shovelling snow and cleaning the beer lines, &c. Ally helped filling buckets with slops.  Mrs Sheryl Hepworth, 36, the Red Lion cook, formerly Miss Seymour, claims kinship with Henry VIII and 'Princess Diana', and reckons she is in line to the Dukedom of Somerset. Last year she drove her husband, Reg, insane, and he was closeted for 8 weeks in Linfield Mount (the place where Mrs Rochester would be incarcerated if Charlotte Bronte was to write 'Jane Eyre' today). Sheryl is an aligator, only more sly. Our climax at the Red Lion. Les Gledhill paid us a quick visit to say he'll phone us on Wednesday to make arrangements for some work before Christmas. He doesn't want me 'moping' around at home. Obviously, he doesn't know me. I have never moped. Worked with Rita. Jean and Enid stayed back for drinks. Ally did the tills upstairs. We have somehow acumulated an extra £25 and so we took it for ourselves. It is the done thing. 

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Sunday December 11, 1983

 Red Lion, Thornton Road, Four Lane Ends, Bradford 8

3rd Sunday in Advent

The BRI.

Snow fell this evening. The first of the winter. Bing Crosby will be in full voice somewhere. His awful 'White Christmas' gets a hammering every bloody year. I got into the bath at opening time and let the girls get on with it. I just gave them a hand in the bar at the end. This afternoon we went up to the BRI to inspect the maternity building along with another couple who expect a bundle of joy in February. We left after an hour feeling highly nervous and well aware that the time is almost upon us. Ally looked slightly terror struck at the sight of heart monitors and breathing apparatus. Those rooms look so impersonal and clinical. This first baby caper is certainly a step into the unknown. We went on to Harden to see Jean and David. Jean pregnant but isn't big, and silent as ever. David has grown a nautical beard and was friendly as ever. They like the names Nathaniel and Samuel. We just eyed each other. Our Samuel will be born first anyway. Back to the 'Lion Rouge' for 7. Jim, Margaret and Julie came. Julie has hair like the singer Paul Young. They left in snow at 8:30 and we went out and bought a Chinese take-away.

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Saturday December 10, 1983

 Red Lion, Thornton Rd, Four Lane Ends, Bradford 8

Tel: 496684

I did not go crazy last night, and so not hungover. We only spent £11 after time, and by we I of course mean the full company. It is the anniversary of the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936. The Duchess of Windsor is hanging on by the skin of her teeth over in Paris. It will be interesting to see what becomes of her jewels when she is no more. I hope that Queen Mary's gems don't fall into the hands of some ghastly, cheap American, and that they come home to the Crown. I had a busy afternoon with Enid, and a similar night with Jean and Rita. Jean stayed back at 11 and had a brandy by the fire. A Pakistani piled his X-reg motor up against the Co-op wall and we all went out to look. Biting cold. Our customer, old Mary, says she isn't long for this world. I'm inclined to agree with her.

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Friday December 9, 1983

 Red Lion, Thornton Road, Four Lane Ends, Bradford 8

The Red Lion.

I have ceased to make comments on national and international affairs touching us at this moment in time. To be honest I seldom see the TV news and I look at the Daily Telegraph for about ten minutes each day which is no good. According to the Press Prince William has given his father a heavy cold, and a portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh by Bryan Organ has been unveiled at the National Gallery. Amazing that no other portraits of the duke are to be found in a national collection. Organ portrays him as an ageing reptile, but it is a good likeness. We went to the bank and passed an afternoon of peaceful quietude. So unlike our life at the Why Not. 

This evening the clan gathered here to see how I am coping.John and Janette arrived first followed by Lynn and Dave, then Karen, Steve, Di, Paul, Jill and Tim. I wasn't expecting to see the Pudsey crowd at all. Finally, in walked Marlene and Frank, and they didn't expect to see their Pudset kinfolk either. Marlene was only expecting the Rhodes delegation. Poor Sue has a galloping Delhi belly, and is indisposed. I had to work but kept joining the revellers on the other side. I ejected a youth, who, whilst drunk, fell over the coal scuttle and mangled it, and then threatened to rape a blue-rinsed matron from Heaton. No violence however. Lynn and Dave had to leave at 11 because Audrey was sitting with the children but we entertained the remaining crew to a private drink. Paul seemed enthralled by pub life and I showed him the cellars. He squealed with delight at the sight of wooden barrels. _______. John says business isn't doing too well and he cannot see Rhodes & Ettenfield going public in the near future. They all left after a couple of drinks and we took to our bed. All the girls had been in pearls.Karen, in a tartan suit and patent shoes looked like Ruth, Lady Fermoy.

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Thursday December 8, 1983

 Red Lion, Thornton Road, Four Lane Ends, Bradford 8

Ally went to see Sister Matthews but first she saw an old haridan who gasped when poor pet mounted the scales. My poor wife weighs almost 10 stones. She says she's been eating the wrong food. This is true. Since we came here it's been a flow of deep fried this and deep fried that - not in any way beneficial to young Sam/Clemmie. Sister Matthews wasn't distressed saying Ally is progressing well. Our baby has dropped into 'take off' position. She always comments on Ally's pretty dresses. We now eagerly await the big day. Ally was very good with Mum and Dad on Tuesday and offered them room and shelter at Club Street throughout the accouchement. Mum wants to be around and 'involved'. 

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Wednesday December 7, 1983

 Red Lion, Thornton Road, Four Lane Ends, Bradford 8

Ally & Lynn.

Day off. Mum and Dad went off to Settle to collect a frozen turkey from the Co-op. They're making a Christmas dinner for guests on Saturday. We went to Ashley Mills to look at nappies, but bought none. Should we purchase Zorbit ones, that is the question? Cold, freezing day. On to the Butcher's Arms at Pudsey where we had lunch with Rob and Kath Piper. It's a very suitable tavern and both Ally and I would have it if we had the opportunity. Rob told us to go to Hunslet to look at the Moorhouse Inn which is vacant. The place doesn't sound good as it's surrounded by multi-storey flats and is next door to a Salvation Army citadel. Oh dear. On at 3pm to Lynn's. We found her walking with the pram in Guiseley and we went back to Thorpefields for tea and cake. The house is freezing. The Bakers do not use the central heating and an icy chill hangs throughout the house. The children's fingers are blue with cold. Frances is going to be an angel in the playschool nativity play, and she sang one of the songs, but very quietly. Ally, straining to hear, says it's 'We Will Rock You'. Back to the Red Lion for 6. I lit a fire for Enid and then went upstairs. Len Fairclough has been 'killed off' on Coronation Street.

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