Mum’s Diary
Rained heavily nearly all day. Started Piriton for spots. FR rang briefly in aft. I rang back briefly. P did washed. A & E tidied bedrooms. P & I went to help arrange stuff for harvest. She & I did big pedestals then I came home she stayed. P A E & I went to supper. A helped. Soup, hot dog salad, apple pie, coffee 40p. Men did it. Ken Tickle & Pam arranged singing after. IT IS.
Roger’s/My Diary
This morning there was a very violent thunderstorm and I got soaked on the way to work. Mr. Peake hasn’t yet worked out how much we’ll get paid. Work was quite interesting as we were re-shelving the fiction that Mr. Peake had lent to the film co. I bought a Romeo & Juliet notes for 5p from Oxfam and sold it for 20p. Norwich drew 1-1 with Tottenham so as I win 10p from Terry every time they win or draw he owes me 10p. This evening tried to make a cake while the others had gone out to the church’s Harvest Supper but I overcooked it and it’s a bit of a disaster.
Notes
Notes on the Weather
Mum opened her diary entry by saying that it rained heavily nearly all day. I also commented on this, perhaps more dramatically. I described it as a very violent thunderstorm and noted that I got soaked on the way to work.
Chlorpheniramine for Spots
Mum noted that she started taking chlorpheniramine (Piriton), an antihistamine, for spots. I presume she had heat spots as she had previously been prescribed the same medicine for these the previous year, see Chapter 116. As this is an over-the-counter medicine, I think people would nowadays be encouraged to get this themselves. I have done this for antihistamines for hay fever for quite a number of years now. On this occasion, she did not say whether she bought or was prescribed this.
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, he phoned briefly in the afternoon (aft) and mum phoned him back also briefly.
Washing
P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia). Mum noted that she did the washing, see Chapter 126. I think mum wrote a combination of P washed and P did washing when she wrote “P did washed“.
Tidying Bedrooms
A and E refer to my younger siblings Alan and Liz (E for Elizabeth). Mum noted that they tidied their bedrooms, see Chapter 126. I escaped these domestic chores as I had a Saturday job and was at work.
Harvest Supper
It was Harvest Festival week at the church the rest of my family attended, St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church. This was a pretty big deal, see Chapter 124, and the church needed to be decorated, particularly with flowers. Mum and my older sister Tricia (P for Patricia) went there to help and did the big pedestals. Mum then came home but Tricia stayed.
In the evening, mum and my three siblings Tricia (P for Patricia), Alan (A) and Liz (E for Elizabeth) went to the Harvest Supper. I did not go as I had stopped attending church some time previously. Mum noted that Alan helped with the supper which was provided and served by the men of the church. Mum noted that the meal was soup, a hot dog salad, apple pie and coffee. The cost of this was 40p. Mum’s church friends Ken Tickle and Pam Ludlow arranged singing after the supper.
Ken Tickle
Ken Tickle was a friend of mum’s from St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124. He was mentioned frequently in mum’s diaries as was his wife Enid. I believe she was from Malawi and theirs was probably the only interracial marriage I was aware of at that time. There is a video of him and Enid speaking on the occasion of the church’s 50th anniversary on YouTube. He was very musical, was part of the church choir and also played music for country dances etc. He was also a teacher at Earlham School, the school that my siblings Alan and Liz (Elizabeth) attended.
Pam Ludlow
Pam Ludlow was another friend of mum’s through St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124. She is mentioned a lot in mum’s diary. They were friends through St Peter’s. Pam and mum 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.
Mum’s Medication
Mum tended to note the tablets she took each day, particularly at night, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she took one amitriptyline (T for Tryptizol) for depression and one senna-containing tablet (S for Senokot) for constipation. At this time, she was trying to come off her antidepressants but found she occasionally needed to take one because of withdrawal effects.
Saturday Job
At this time, although I was still at school, I had a Saturday job at the Scientific Anglian bookshop, see Chapter 119. While I now look back on my time working in that secondhand bookshop with great fondness, I also recall that I earned much less than my friends who worked in other places, such as Sainsbury’s. Ultimately, I did leave and went to work at Sainsbury’s in Anglia Square.
At this point, I had been led to believe that some kind of pay rise was coming but Mr Peake , the owner, had not yet decided how much we would be paid. I was clearly disappointed by this.
While, in principle, I enjoyed working there, I was often “bored” as it was not always very busy. On this occasion, however, I commented that it was quite interesting as we were re-shelving the fiction that Mr. Peake had lent to a film company. Sadly, I don’t know anything more about this but assume he provided this as part of a film set.
I noted that I bought a set of study notes on the Shakespeare play “Romeo and Juliet” at the Oxfam shop for 5p and sold it to Mr Peake for 20p. This means he would sell it for 40p as I know he put on a 100% mark-up. I recall that I sometimes tried buying and selling books with various degrees of success. Essentially, I had to try to buy a book for a quarter of what I thought the bookshop would sell it for. While the amounts might not seem large, I think this was a particular success and that is why I recorded it in my diary. I quadrupled my money after all!
Terry Tidd
Terry Tidd also helped Mr Peake out in the bookshop, see Chapter 119. I recalled him and his first name but not his surname. I am grateful to James Tidd for explaining on Facebook that his surname was Tidd and that Terry, who sadly died in 2013, had been his uncle. Terry was older than us and I believe was a friend of Mr Peake’s. Possibly they had worked together at May and Baker. He and I had some kind of bet going on. He paid me 10p every time Norwich won or drew. I don’t know if I paid him when they lost!
Norwich 1 Tottenham 1
Norwich drew 1-1 away at Tottenham, see Chapter 123. For me, a draw away at Tottenham would be a good result any season. However, this was not a good season for Tottenham as they ended up being relegated along with Stoke City and Sunderland.
This was Norwich’s seventh league game of the season. They had previously won one against Birmingham City (1-0), drawn one, against Derby County, and lost four against Liverpool, Arsenal, West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City. As a result, at the start of the Tottenham game, Norwich were bottom of the league.
My main motivation for noting this game appears to have been the bet with Terry. I am not exactly sure what this was about. I assume it means that I was known as a Norwich City supporter at work. Also, I assume that Terry was a football fan but probably did not support Norwich and was making the point that he thought Norwich would lose a lot of games! I do not recall what team he supported if any.
If this arrangement had applied through the whole 1976-77 season only to league games, Terry would have paid me £2.30 as Norwich won 14 league games and drew nine. If I had made counter payments each time Norwich lost, I would have made a net gain of 40p as Norwich also lost 19 times. My suspicion is that this arrangement probably petered out. I do not recall it!
Baking Disaster
I noted that, while others were out at the church’s Harvest Supper, I tried to bake a cake but it was a bit of a disaster as I “overcooked” it, a euphemism for burned!
Leave a Reply