Mum – Roger went Y. Hostelling. Roy took him to Ilam. P went to work
Went to bed in aft but did not sleep. Had card from Ray Tracey & from Pam Ludlow. Mr R came to see me also about church work. R rang in evening.
Roger – This morning we set off at 9 o’clock and reached Kirkby-in-Ashfield at ½ past 12. We had picked up a hitch-hiker just outside Norwich and dropped him on the A1 outside Newark as he was trying to reach Morecambe. He was going around the country visiting friends. He teaches English in Paris. We spent about 3 hours with grandma, she cooked dinner for us, sausage and bacon and she gave me some for my tea.
Dad drove me to Ilam and after nearly getting lost we found the Youth Hostel. I booked in O.K. and cooked something to eat. Of the 6 beds in my room only 5 are being used. I went for a short walk round the grounds. In the cricket match England were about 420-9 when I last heard with only 2 bowlers Willis & Miller left in. They need about 70 more runs to save the follow on. Alan Knott scored 49 and Amiss 201. Of the 9 wickets 8 have fallen to Michael Holding.
Notes
Youth Hostelling
Mum noted that I (Roger) went youth hostelling (Y Hostelling), see Chapter 122. She commented that my father Royle Drew (Roy) dropped me in Ilam, where I was starting my holiday. My parents had separated in 1973, see Chapter 114. Dad was living and working in Birmingham at this time. He had been visiting for the weekend with an office car from the Norwich Union. I presume he was heading back to Birmingham and was dropping me in Ilam “on his way”.
Dropping me in Ilam did add about another 50 miles to dad’s journey, raising the distance covered from about 160 miles to 210 miles. However, this was a modest detour compared to the one we had made when we had come from Birmingham to Norwich two days earlier. My younger sister Liz and I had been in Birmingham helping dad move into his new house. We had come back to Norwich via London as he had some possessions he needed to pick up from there!
City Treasurer’s Office
P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia). Mum noted that she went to work. At this point, she was between school and university and had a summer job in the City Treasurer’s office from 26 July to 24 September, see Chapter 119.
Bed in the Afternoon
Mum noted that she went to bed in the afternoon (aft) but did not sleep. She had had surgery to remove a kidney stone some two weeks earlier, see Chapter 116, and had been home three days. I suspect she had been told to take it easy and going to bed in the afternoon was a way of doing this. I imagine it also appealed to mum’s “drama queen” tendencies as it was a strong visual reminder that she was still ill!
Cards
Mum commented that she received cards from Ray Tracey and Pam Ludlow.
Ray Tracey
Ray Tracey appears many times in mum’s diaries but almost exclusively as Methodist local preacher Miss R Walker, see Chapter 124. Her full name was Rachel Pashley Walker but she was mostly known as Ray. She was active as a Methodist local preacher between at least 1956 and 1976. It appears that she married GP, Dr Basil Martin Tracey, in 1976, although it is perhaps surprising that mum did not note this in her diary. Sadly, they were burgled while they were away on honeymoon. I found one occasion, in 1977, when she spoke at Rosebery Road under her married name, Mrs R Tracey. She appears to have been born in Ketteringham in 1910 and to have died in Norwich in 1989.
Pam Ludlow
Pam Ludlow was a friend of mum’s through St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124. They were involved in a number of the same activities such as St Peter’s Guild and choir. I don’t know much else about her other than this. I do recall her though.
Rev Ream and Church Work
Mr R is a reference to Rev Ream who was senior Minister at St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church at this time, see Chapter 124. Mum noted that he came to see her, presumably to see how she was, but also to discuss church work. Mum did not specify what elements of church work they discussed but mum was active in a wide variety of roles including typing and duplicating weekly service sheets, overseeing the church’s rolls, communion steward and property steward. The matters they discussed could have related to one or more of their roles.
I know that mum’s relationship with Rev Ream was very difficult. She had implicitly criticised the shortness of his visits when he had gone to see her in hospital. While she does not say so explicitly, I sense that she was not happy that he had not come just to see how she was but also wanted to discuss church work despite the fact that she was only just out of hospital having had major surgery. However, the contradiction that my mother was, she would have loved the feeling of being needed, almost indispensable, in terms of the church’s functioning!
I Phoned
Mum noted that I (R for Roger) phoned in the evening. This is a recurring theme during the period I was away youth hostelling. I suspect this was the price I had to pay for being allowed to go youth hostelling on my own. I had to agree to phone my mother every night! However, I suspect I was not happy about this but did it. However, I did not note this in my diary on this or on most other occasions.
Detailed Journey
I gave more detail of the journey to Ilam. I did not specifically say that this was with my father but it is clearly implied in the “we“. We set off at 9 am and reached Kirkby by 12.30pm. I referred to Kirkby in full as Kirkby-in-Ashfield. This is where my family were from and, at that time, my paternal grandmother still lived there. I recall visiting her with dad as a teenager. However, I did not see as much of her as I did of my maternal grandparents who had moved to Drayton a few years after we had moved to Norwich.
Hitch-hiker
I noted that we picked up a hitch-hiker just outside Norwich and dropped him on the A1 outside Newark. He was trying to get to Morecambe in Lancashire. We must have got to know him a bit during the journey. We learned that he was going around the country visiting friends. He was teaching English in Paris.
Commonplace Then
While hitchhiking was commonplace then, it has largely fallen out of fashion since and I cannot recall the last time I saw someone hitching. The reasons for this are probably multiple including perceptions of danger and rise in car ownership. Another factor has been the growth of motorway-type roads where pedestrians are not allowed. However, while hitchhiking itself has fallen out of fashion, there has been a rise of technology-based similar practices, e.g. of car sharing and “slugging”. It is worth noting that hitchhiking remains popular in some countries and this often relates to levels of car ownership.
Polar Opposites
Attitude to hitchhikers was an area where my parents differed greatly. My father would always stop to pick them up whereas my mother never would. I think dad had hitchhiked himself, possibly when doing national service. He liked the idea of giving someone a hand and also loved nothing more than talking to strangers. I suspect if asked mum would have been anxious about safety but I think she also probably disapproved of hitchhiking as she probably saw it as a form of “cadging“, that is trying to get something for nothing.
Attracted to Hitchhiking
I confess that I was really attracted to hitchhiking at that time. Of course the attraction was partly about being able to travel potentially long distances for free but I also found the idea exciting and probably a bit “edgy“. However, my experience of actual hitchhiking was limited to some experiences of hitchhiking with others while on school camping holidays in France, , see Chapter 118. I was enthralled by the book “Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to Europe” which undoubtedly inspired me to spend the summer of 1978 hitchhiking round Europe, see Chapter 122.
“Hitch-hikers Guide to Europe“
Apparently Ken Walsh’s book “Hitch-hiker’s Guide to Europe” inspired “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. I don’t know what happened to my copy but I acquired a copy which originates from 1977 and looks how I remember the one I had. I found this book extremely inspiring with its slightly anarchic and opinionated approach to travelling. This is in an era before Lonely Planet or Rough Guides were (widely-)available. Lonely Planet was founded in the early 1970s but only really expanded to the world beyond Australia in the eighties. Rough Guides started in 1982.
Visiting Grandma
In Kirkby, we spent about three hours with my grandmother, Alice Drew, see Chapter 58. She was born Alice Redfin on 2 May 1899. However, there was some confusion over this surname as she sometimes spelled it Redfern. She married Charles Randall in 1919 and had three children with him. However, he died in 1929 leaving Alice with three young children. She married my grandfather in 1931. Dad was their only child. I recall visits, such as this, to see grandma at her house in Alexandra Street, a colliery row, in Kirkby. She died just before her 90th birthday on 30 April 1989.
Dinner and Tea
Grandma cooked us a midday meal of sausage and bacon which was something she would have typically had in. She also gave me some to take with me to cook that evening.
I referred to these meals as dinner and tea. This reflected my family’s working class background in Nottinghamshire. However, given that we had moved to Norwich in 1960 and possibly because we were becoming more middle class (!), that usage was changing and family members sometimes, and perhaps increasingly, referred to a midday meal as lunch, see Chapter 92. I guess now I would rarely refer to dinner as, depending on who you are talking to, it can be confusing. So, now I refer mostly to lunch and tea, although I guess I might occasionally use dinner if we were going out to eat in the evening.
Arriving in Ilam
After we had visited grandma, dad drove me to Ilam. I noted that we nearly got lost. This reflects both that it was an era before sat navs but it also highlighted another stark difference between my parents. My mother was hyper-organised and would have planned a detailed route for a journey of this nature. My father had a much more relaxed attitude. He knew roughly where he was going so would just go with that! As a result, we nearly got lost but did find the youth hostel. I suspect both of my parents would have felt that their approach was vindicated by this experience!
Ilam Hall
Ilam Hall first became a youth hostel in 1932. It continues to operate as one. I stayed there with my dad in the late sixties, see Chapter 92.
I noted that I booked in and cooked a meal, presumably the food my grandmother had given me. While it was possible to buy meals in most youth hostels including Ilam Hall, it was also possible to self cater which I mostly did, presumably to keep costs down. I was staying in a six-bedded dormitory. I noted that only five beds were occupied. Also, I noted having a short walk round the grounds in the evening.
Cricket Score
I referred to the score from “the cricket match” which was the fifth test between England and the West Indies at the Oval, see Chapter 123. It was the fourth day of play and I assume I had heard some of it on a radio. I noted that England were about 420 for 9 with only two bowlers Bob Willis and Geoff Miller left in. I thought they needed about 70 runs to avoid the follow-on. West Indies had scored 687 for 8 declared in their first innings.
Apparently, in a five-day match, a team that is more than 200 runs behind after completion of their first innings can be forced to follow-on. That is why England on 420 needed another 70 or so to avoid having to follow-on. However, although England failed to reach the total required, presumably West Indies did not force the follow-on as they batted again albeit briefly.
I noted that Alan Knott had scored 49 runs and Dennis Amiss 201. I also noted that Michael Holding had taken eight wickets. In fact, England made 435 all out in their first innings. Alan Knott made 50, Geoff Miller 36 and Bob Willis five not out. West Indies made 182 without loss before they declared. This left England needing 435 to win. At the end of Day 4, England were 43 without loss in their second innings.
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