Mum – Mr R in am v poor. Choir sang well. Very depressed & irritable. Went to Drayton for tea. Went to Bowthorpe Rd at night. Malcolm v good. Rang FR briefly at night. Almost finished red dress. 1T 1S.
Roger – Was first up at about ½ past 8 then Tricia gave me a lift to the swimming pool where I saw Caroline who lives next door to grandma. I swam 37 widths of St Augustine’s but then ran out of time. I also swam a width of the pool and dived 12′ 6″. Went to grandma’s and did some work as my first “O” level is a week tomorrow. Tricia has her “A” levels soon. Mum & Tricia have gone to church. The rest are tidying up our rooms and listening to the radio. Will probably watch TV tonight. Here are the charts.
↔ (1) 1 Fernando by Abba **
↔ (2) 2 No Charge by J J Barrie
↑ (-) 3 Combine Harvester by The Wurzels
↑ (-) 4 My Resistance is Low by Robin Sarstedt
↑ (6) 5 More, More, More by Andrea True Connection
↓ (5) 6 The Arms of Mary by Sutherland Bros and Quiver ****
↑ (-) 7 Silly Love Songs by Wings ****
↓ (7) 8 Fool to Cry by The Rolling Stones ***
↑ (-) 9 Let Your Love Flow by The Bellamy Brothers ***
↑ (-) 10 Love Hangover by Diana Ross
Notes
Rev Ream
Mr R refers to Rev Ream who was the senior Minister at St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church at this time, see Chapter 124. He took the morning service but mum thought it was very poor.
Choir
On the other hand, mum thought the choir sang well. Of course, mum was part of the choir, see Chapter 124, so her opinion was not unbiased. However, she was not afraid to criticise the choir at times!
Depressed and Irritable
Mum struggled with depression and anxiety during this period, see Chapter 116. She noted that she felt very depressed and irritable. It was relatively unusual for mum to note in her diary that her irritability was linked to feeling depressed. It is one thing I vividly remember that mum could be extremely irritable and there were times when almost everything and anything I did seemed to annoy her!
Drayton for Tea
We went to grandma’s in Drayton for tea as was our usual practice, see Chapter 122. I noted doing some school work there as my O levels were coming up pretty soon, see Chapter 118.
Bowthorpe Road Methodist Church
At night, mum went to the service at Bowthorpe Road Methodist Church where Rev Malcolm Carter was the speaker. Mum commented that it was very good. This became a bit of a pattern at this time, to attend one service at St Peter’s and another at Bowthorpe Road, see Chapter 124. While this was undoubtedly driven by mum’s poor relationship with Rev Ream, it was not as simple as her simply avoiding the services he was taking.
In the evening, I noted that mum and Tricia had gone to church but I did not note which church. I assume Tricia went to the service at St Peter’s.
Rev Dowson
FR refers to Rev F R Dowson. Frederick Rodham Dowson entered the Methodist ministry in 1936. He was born in Haxby, York on 5 August 1912 and he died in Selsey on 4 September 2011, aged 99. I believe he was superintendent Minister for the Park Lane Circuit from 1968 to 1974. He and mum were close and they spoke and corresponded frequently, see Chapter 114. On this occasion, she rang him briefly at night.
Red Dress
Mum was an excellent seamstress and made many of her own clothes. She had started making a red dress the previous day and noted that she had almost finished it, see Chapter 126.
Antidepressants
From time to time, mum took antidepressants, see Chapter 116. At this point, she was not taking them every day and was trying to come off them. However, on this occasion, she took one tablet of amitriptyline (Tryptizol, T) presumably because she was feeling very depressed and irritable.
Senokot
Mum took one Senokot (S) presumably for constipation, see Chapter 116. Senokot is a senna-containing medicine for the treatment of constipation.
Swimming
As I often did on a Sunday morning, I went swimming at St Augustine’s, see Chapter 122. I noted that I was first up at about 8.30 am. Tricia refers to my older sister (Patricia). She gave me a lift to the pool. I saw Caroline Douglas there who lived next door to grandma in Drayton. In my diary, I noted that I swam 37 widths before running out of time. I also swam one width underwater and dived to 12′ 6″. I don’t think I was a particularly strong swimmer but I thought I was! On this occasion, I think I swam widths rather than lengths because it was a public session with lots of non-swimmers in the shallow end.
Exams
Both my older sister Tricia and I had public exams that year. She was taking her A levels and I was taking my O levels with my fist exam starting in just over a week, see Chapter 118.
Tidying Rooms
I noted that the rest of us, which presumably was me and my two remaining siblings, Alan and Liz (Elizabeth), were tidying our rooms, see Chapter 126. I am not sure how much tidying I was doing as I seemed to be listening to music and writing my diary!
Radio
I noted that we were listening to the radio, presumably to the chart show which was our usual practice at that time, see Chapter 122. Also, I noted the top ten for that week, noting each record’s position this week as compared to last week. I also gave 1-5 stars/asterisks to songs I liked which gives some insight to my musical taste at the time!!
I very much recall “The Arms of Mary”, including trying to learn to play it on guitar. The previous week, I had ranked this lower than the Rolling Stones song but I had revised that this week. I think it is fair to say that I did not like the songs that scored no stars!
TV
I noted that I would probably watch TV in the evening but did not say what I planned to watch, see Chapter 122.
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