Closing down the 1973 Diary

As I was putting the 1973 away in its safety deposit box at the bank* (one day, when this blog goes into stratosphere mode *cough* it could be worth millions?!) I discovered this page which I had not mentioned at the start of the year

It shows my exam results for June 1973. Results which strangely suggest that History was my best subject which will (again) come as a surprise to my wife, whilst Geography was my worst subject, which won’t.

Yes, I really did write (Har! Har!) next to RE (Religious Education) in 1973, demonstrating a certain disdain for the subject even back then.

As I keep on saying, I feel disappointed that many of my diary entries haven’t jogged my memory to a greater degree than they have. I’m also disappointed that I never felt it necessary to go into any greater detail all those years ago. Not just because it may make this blog a little less repetitive, but it might just feel nice – 36 years on – to have a few more specific reminders about my teenage self. What were the defining moments? How did I get from there to here? Hey, I’m 51, I’m bound to look back and wonder aren’t I?

Anyway, that’s 1973. Hope you liked it.

Having taken a brief advance look at the 1974 diary I’m sorry to have to report that next year’s entries will be somewhat ‘scant’ by comparison.

*ok, so I threw it back into the keepsakes box in the basement

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The 1973 Diary (VII)

It would appear that for several weeks into the start of 1973 I documented the amount of money I spent every day….

It reads like a millionaire….. OK, it doesn’t….

Jan   1 : 10p
Jan   2 :   7p
Jan   3 : 29½p (yes, in 1973, there were still halfpennies!)
Jan   4 : 10p
Jan   5 :   0p
Jan   6 : 14p
Jan   7 :   7p
Jan   8 : 28p
Jan   9 : 10p
Jan 10 : 16p
Jan 11 :   8p
Jan 12 :   0p
Jan 13 : £3.72 (Woaaaah!)
Jan 14 : 11p
Jan 15 :   9p
Jan 16 : 13p
Jan 17 :   0p
Jan 18 :   6p
Jan 19 : 10p
Jan 20 : 47p
Jan 21 : 11p
Jan 22 : 25p
Jan 23 : £2.35
Jan 24 : 28p
Jan 25 :   2p
Jan 26 :   2p
Jan 27 :   0p
Jan 28 :   4p
Jan 29 : 19p
Jan 30 :   0p
Jan 31 : 13p

…… etc…. until March 4th…..

What was all this loose coinage spent on? Bus fares? Sweets? Comics? Money really MUST have gone further in 1973!

The 1973 Diary (VI)

On the personal notes page, I have written my height as 5ft 2ins.

Proving I was still growing upwards.

I have written my weight as 7st 0lbs (98 lbs)

Proving I have continued to grow outwards.

The 1973 Diary (V)

I won’t go into too much concerning this pair of pages towards the back of the diary – for fear of potentially undermining future entries about the music I nabbed in 1973 – suffice to say my anal retentiveness with regards to documenting the record label and/or catalogue number of each item would serve me very well in my later life!

The 1973 Diary (IV)

How very very SAD was I that I went through this informative article on “Taking Your First Photographs” and circled every mention of the word (band name) “Focus”

At the end of the article I wrote “Focus was written 16 times on the last 4 pages – now then, there’s not a lot of people who know vat!”

Trivia corner – The phrase “not a lot of people know that” is often – and wrongly – attributed to actor Michael Caine. It was actually coined by Peter Sellers – doing an impersonation of Michael Caine – on the Parkinson show one Saturday evening. The phrase stuck in the public’s mind.

Caine HATES it, apparently.

The 1973 Diary (III)

Page 3:
Vicar’s Dog Collar? Check
Flat hat with bobble? Check
Fly Sunglasses (years before Bono)? Check
Top hat and Magicians Wand? Check
Double-breasted jacket with padded shoulders (and it’s not even the 80’s)? Check
Bastardized Frank Sinatra lyrics? Check?
Thong sandals? Check

Woaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! THONG SANDALS?

Page 4:
Appears to be a buck-toothed jockey wearing a scarf and platform shoes, accompanied by a dog with eyebrows. He is saying “Vis is mi diry so keap off! Yeah, keap of vis diarea” whilst the dog is threatening “Im ‘is dog keep off!”

Bids start at $2500

The 1973 Diary (II)

This shows how hard I worked as a 15-year-old schoolkid!

Here’s my school timetable, at least (presumably) for January – July 1973. (The diary makes no reference to a timetable from Sept 1973 onwards… maybe it was the same schedule?)

I had Economics (as in ‘world financials’, not ‘home economics’ and all that cookery nonsense) to kick off the week, followed by Religious Education (ha!) and English Composition after the break. Monday afternoon was History, French, Physics and Maths.

Tuesday morning consisted of a double period of Technical Drawing (TD), Geography and (the dreaded) Gym, whilst the afternoon offered up (more) Geography, French, English and History. (I have no idea why the two Geog lessons of the day weren’t twinned together)

Wednesday commenced with French (“quelle horreur”) followed by Grography (again??), SINGING (!!!???!!!) and Maths and after lunch I was subjected to English Drama, History and a double TD.

SINGING?????????????????

Thursday started off BAD for me with double Games (outdoor physical nonsense like football, hockey, basketball, running, cross-country leg tiring) with Physics and French after the morning break. The afternoon threatened double Maths and double English.

My Fridays were top and tailed with double Economics and double Physics with French, Maths, History and Geography in between.

The one thing I really CAN’T remember is that the timetable suggests we had preset evenings for specific homework. The nights don’t even seem to always line up with next day lessons, so what was the point I wonder?

SINGING?????????????????

The 1973 Diary (I)

As you can see, the 1973 diary is somewhat high on the “beaten up” scale, but isn’t doing too bad for a 35+ year old document.

I was encouraged to discover that Letts still make diaries, including “school/student” versions, although they look wildly different from my pvc-sleeved affair. I wonder if Letts still manufacture their diaries domestically? My1973 one has “Made in Great Britain” proudly embossed on the back of the cover!

A cursory glance at the pages show the diary, like 1972’s, is (what is known as) a “week to a view”.

Like with the 1972 diary I will not read any further forward than the posts I am immediately drafting so that the contents are as fresh and immediate to me as they are you, the blog readers. This alleviates me from potentially pre-empting my ‘lack of memory’ trait.

This was more than just a diary however. As the next couple of posts will show, the diary also contained a number of additional pages of my scribblings that weren’t calendar-related. Yes, they are embarrassing, but in the interests of “full disclosure” I will share my embarrassments with you.

The diary also contains full maps of the world, an article on how to obedience train your dog, a history of time-keeping, “making persuasive posters”, quizzes, crosswords, notable dates (in history, not mine I hasten to add), 1973’s Lighting-up timetable, first-aid hints, road safety tips, measurement converters, abbreviations, some French irregular verbs (???), lists of British Prime Ministers and Sovereigns, notable events in history, principle countries of the world and…. four pages towards the back listing books I should read!?!

I’ll hope that 1973’s is at least as mildly entertaining as 1972’s (might have been?), and hope I can find lots to write about. I’ll hope too that my parents argued less so I didn’t feel the need to always comment on it.