Mum’s Diary
P took A Jessie & U Arthur to station for 8.02 train. A brought me my breakfast to bed. Typed & dup in am. Judith came to see P. Then P & I went in city & had lunch & bought some things for her to go to Cambridge. I got her a kettle from Argos – Swan automatic – £11.95 – same kettle £14+ Elect Board & £16 at Jarrolds. Malcolm brought some dup. in aft. Came up to “office”!! Told Malcolm about Roy coming. He said good when I told him Roy wants to talk. P. offered me some of her money if I’m short. She says she will leave me a signed slip & her bank book. No tabs.
Roger’s/My Diary
Thursday is always my hardest days as I have two double maths lessons & 1 at lunch-time and both Physics and Chemistry and today was no exception. Did some of my homework but I’ve still got a great amount to complete. Tricia has bought a lot of stuff for Cambridge as she leaves on Sunday.
Notes
Catching a Train
P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia). She was 18 at this time and could drive. So, she went to grandma’s in Drayton to collect Auntie Jessie (A Jessie) and Uncle Arthur (U Arthur) to take them to Norwich railway station to catch a train at 8.02 am, see Chapter 127.
Arthur and Jessie Lofthouse
Auntie Jessie (A Jessie) and Uncle Arthur (U Arthur) refers to Jessie and Arthur Lofthouse. They were not actually related to us but were close family friends. At that time, we were required to refer to such adults as uncle and aunt even though I recall it being confusing as to who I was and was not related to! Mum had been brought up with the same system.
Rev Arthur Lofthouse had been the Minister at Bourne Methodist Church in Kirkby from 1938 to 1942, see Chapter 31. He and his then wife Ella and daughter Dorothy had become firm family friends. Ella had sadly died in 1965 and Rev Lofthouse had remarried in 1967, see Chapter 89. His bride was called Jessie Marsh. I don’t believe anyone from the family went to the wedding, which was in Ormskirk, but there was a photo of it among mum’s papers. Following their wedding, Arthur and Jessie spent their honeymoon in Drayton staying with grandma and grandad. At this time, Arthur and Jessie Lofthouse were visiting grandma.
George Arthur Lofthouse
George Arthur Lofthouse was a Primitive Methodist Minister who was born on 22 August 1901 in Brotton, Yorkshire and who died in 1991. He was ordained in 1932 as one of the last ordinands in the Primitive Methodist Church and one of the first ministers of the Uniting Conference, see Chapter 31.
Breakfast in Bed
A refers to my younger brother Alan. Mum noted that he brought her breakfast in bed. Mum had had breakfast in bed a few times that month although this was the first time she identified the culprit/perpetrator!
I am not sure why Alan decided mum needed breakfast in bed on this occasion specifically. She had had surgery for a kidney stone at the beginning of August, see Chapter 116, so perhaps she and Alan saw this as part of her post-op recovery. Alternatively, Alan might just have wanted to earn “brownie points” or he might have been a kinder, more thoughtful person that I was!
Mum loved this kind of thing and I think it contributed to what I would call “the hierarchy of affection” mum felt for her children, particularly at that time. While mum would always have claimed, like all parents, to have loved us all equally, I find it hard to believe that based on my experience. To me, there was a clear hierarchy of affection with Alan at the top, Tricia (Patricia) next and Liz (Elizabeth) and me at the bottom!
In my case, it is pretty understandable as I was a strongly, independent-minded teenager who mum found “difficult”. At best, I used to keep my head down and, at worst, I argued with mum frequently. Factors that made this worse were that I had stopped attending church a few years earlier, the only one of the siblings to do so, and in conflicts between my parents, who had separated in 1973, I tended to side with my father certainly in my mother’s eyes, see Chapter 114.
Typing and Duplicating
According to mum’s CV, see Chapter 105, she ran a typing and duplicating business from home until 1975. However, she did typing and duplicating after this date, particularly for the church, see Chapter 121. On this occasion, she noted doing typing and duplicating (dup) in the morning (am). In the afternoon, Malcolm Carter brought her some duplicating.
Judith
Judith was a friend of my sister’s Tricia (Patricia) from school. I don’t know her surname and, as far as I can see, she is only mentioned twice in mum’s diary. on this occasion, when she came to see Tricia before she/they headed off to university, and on one previous occasion when they had gone to a taster course at Hull University together. Tricia attended a physics course and Judith one on chemistry, see Chapter 120.
A Fine City
Mum noted that she went “in city” with Tricia (P for Patricia). This was how she usually referred to shopping in Norwich city centre, that is, as going into the “city”, see Chapter 125. Indeed, she would point out to anyone who dared refer to this as going “to town” that Norwich was a city!
“45 Years“
Some three years ago, I watched the film “45 Years” starring Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling. They are a couple and are supposed to live in rural Norfolk. However, he referred to going into Norwich as “going into town”. This grated on me so much that I asked about this on the Norwich Remembers Facebook Group. It generated almost 600 comments which is easily the most I have ever had for one post!
Definitely City
Those who commented almost all agreed that going to Norwich was referred to as going to, or up or down the, “city” and never as “town”. Some felt that because Norwich is a city, with a cathedral, it should be clear to everyone to refer to going to Norwich in this way. However, others pointed out that not all places with cathedrals are cities, e.g. Bury St Edmunds and people in other cities, e.g. Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Colchester, Leeds, London, Newcastle, New York and York, sometimes refer to going into town. Colchester is a specific case. It was only relatively recently elevated to city status, in 2022, although it was apparently a city in Roman times but, more recently, has been a town.
Lunch
Mum noted that she and my older sister Tricia (Patricia) had lunch in Norwich. This would have been relatively unusual as we did not eat out often at that time, see Chapter 122. Mum, and probably Tricia, would have regarded it as a special treat. I expect this was linked to Tricia going to university at the weekend, see Chapter 120. I suspect mum had chosen Thursday as she was not at work that day, see Chapter 121.
A Note on Meal Terminology
Based on my family’s working class background in Nottinghamshire, we had tended to refer to our meals as dinner and tea. However, given that we had moved to Norwich in 1960, and possibly because we were becoming more middle class, some of that usage was changing and family members sometimes, and perhaps increasingly, referred to a midday meal as lunch, see Chapter 92 although we continued to refer to an afternoon or early evening meal as tea. Here, mum referred to having lunch with Tricia in Norwich. I referred to having an extra maths lesson at lunch-time.
Buying a Kettle
While in Norwich, mum got Tricia a kettle from Argos, a Swan automatic for £11.95. She noted that the same kettle was £14 at the Electricity Board and £16 at Jarrolds, see Chapter 125.
I think buying a kettle for a departing student was a bit of a tradition or rite of passage. However, I am not sure it worked well when I went to university in Newcastle, see Chapter 120, as the halls of residence where I lived for the first two years did not permit kettles in students’ rooms.
In my diary, I noted that Tricia had bought a lot of stuff for Cambridge as she was leaving on the coming Sunday, see Chapter 120.
Swan
The Swan brand is well-known in electrical appliances particularly kettles. In the 1920, the firm Bulpitts moved into electrical appliances including kettles and the Swan brand was born. They pioneered an electrical element that could be immersed in water meaning six pints of water could be boiled in nine minutes. The brand was acquired by Moulinex in 1988 and then by others including Littlewoods, Swan Products Ltd and RKW Ltd.
Argos
Argos is a well-known high street retailer that is still active today. It has a distinct retail style where customers order from a catalogue and then collect what they have bought from a pick-up point. Argos was founded in 1972 by Richard Tompkins and marked an evolution of the Green Shield Stamp concept. Argos has been subject to a number of acquisitions and mergers. It is currently a subsidiary of Sainsbury’s.
Argos stores are currently mostly located within Sainsbury’s branches and that is the case for the four Norwich branches. Previously Argos had a stand-alone branch at 2 Back of the Inns where Greggs is now. This Argos store opened in November 1974 and continued until 1993 when Argos moved to a bigger store in Castle Mall. This was not the location of the Green Shield Stamp shop which I believe was on Prince of Wales Road.
Eastern Electricity Board
At this time, the Eastern Electricity Board had retail showrooms which sold appliances directly to the public. In Norwich, the Electricity Board showrooms were located at 21 The Walk, on the corner of the Walk and Davey Place from at least 1952 until the early nineties. They were located next to Partons jewellers where the NatWest Bank is currently.
Jarrolds
Jarrolds is a very well-known store in Norwich, see Chapter 93, that was established in 1840 and is still in operation today. The store’s website has a really extensive history section. In the 1960 and 1967 Kelly’s Directories, they had their St James’ works Cowgate, bookshops at 1-11 Exchange Street and 1-7 London Street and wholesalers at 25-27 Exchange Street. For me, Jarrolds, on the corner of Exchange Street and London Street, marked one end of the main shopping area in Norwich when I was a child and teenager.
Remarkably, the store has continued to trade as an independent department store and, in many ways, is pretty unchanged from how I remember it in the seventies. Jarrolds was also unusual in that it was popular with all generations of our family. Mum liked it for many reasons including that it was a high-end department store in the same ilk as Bonds, Curls and Garlands but I also liked it because it sold affordable stationery, books and other items.
Price Comparison
Mum compared the price of the same Swan kettle in three different shops, Argos, the Electricity Board and Jarrolds. It is unsurprising that it was cheapest at Argos (£11.95) and most expensive at the relatively upmarket department store Jarrolds (£16) with the Electricity Board in the middle (£14+).
Malcolm Carter
Malcolm refers to Rev Malcolm Carter. He was a Methodist Minister who became mum’s friend and confidant, see Chapter 114. From Merseyside, he served in the ministry there and in Darlington and East Anglia. He was Minister at Court Hey Methodist Church from 1978 to 1986. He was the Methodist chaplain to Walton Prison, now HM Prison Liverpool, for 20 years. I found a YouTube video of him taking a service at Wonford Methodist Church in Exeter in July 2024. When he was in Norwich, he was mainly based at Bowthorpe Road Methodist Church. On this occasion, he brought mum some duplicating.
Up to the “Office”
At this time, mum had a home office in the house where we lived 192 College Road, see Chapter 117. I am not sure if she put it in speech marks simply because it was a home office or because she had very recently moved it from where it was in the attic to a new location on the first floor. This swap had taken place because I had asked if I could have Tricia’s attic room as she was going to university. Mum had “suggested” that I swap with her instead. This was fine with me as I just wanted an attic room. Also, my experience of mum’s “suggestions” were that they were more like coded commands!
I don’t know if it was unusual for Malcolm to come up to the office. I suspect it might have been and this made it noteworthy. Mum may well have wanted to show him what was effectively her new office. I don’t know why this merited two exclamation marks.
Discussing Dad
Roy refers to my father Royle Drew. My parents had separated in 1973 and, at this point, dad was living and working in Birmingham, see Chapter 114. Dad was coming for the weekend and was due to arrive the next day. I assume he was coming as it was Tricia’s last weekend at home before heading to university.
Mum was stressed about this visit partly because she had told Tricia that she had to choose which parent took her to Cambridge and she was not sure if she could bear it if she chose dad! Also, cheques from dad had arrived for me and Tricia but mum’s had not come. Mum had phoned dad about this. He told her then that he was coming for the weekend and he wanted to speak to her. Rev Carter told mum that he thought it was good that dad wanted to speak with her.
I suspect dad wanted to talk to mum about reducing the amount he paid her now that Tricia would be living away from home. I think this explains why he had not sent mum’s monthly cheque. As it happens, he arrived on Saturday not Friday. As far as I know, they did not discuss money. I suspect dad “wimped” out because he knew it would be a difficult, potentially explosive, conversation. Instead, he left mum a cheque for £90 explaining that he had reduced the amount by a quarter from £120 because Tricia was no longer at home! Of course, mum was livid but dad was safely out of harm’s way in Birmingham by then!
Tricia Offered Mum Money
I suspect my older sister Tricia (P for Patricia) knew that mum had not received her cheque and she offered mum some of her money if she was “short“. She said that she would leave a signed slip and her bank book which would have allowed mum to withdraw money from Tricia’s account if she needed to.
While Tricia had received her money from dad, and she had had a job over the summer, see Chapter 119, it seems odd to me that Tricia felt she needed to make this offer. It was kind of her and I suspect such an idea would never have occurred to me! It also explains her higher position in mum’s hierarchy of affection!
Mum’s Medication
Mum tended to note the tablets she took each day, particularly at night, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she noted that she took no tablets (tabs). She had been taking amitriptyline (Tryptizol) for depression and nitrazepam (Mogadon) to help her sleep but she was trying to wean herself off both these.
A Busy Day at School
I had just started sixth form at the Hewett School, see Chapter 118, and my diary is mostly concerned with what I saw as the heavier workload. Our school day was grouped into eight 35-minute periods. Usually, these were timetabled as doubles, that is of one hour and ten minutes. I noted that Thursday was my busiest day as I have a full timetable with two double maths lessons and one each in physics and chemistry.
In addition, I had a lunch-time maths lesson. I think this probably related to S level but it could have been because of timetabling issues I faced because I was doing two O levels, Latin and biology, at the end of lower sixth.
Homework
Homework was a pretty constant feature of my diary and I often complained about the amount I had to do. This complaint is implicit here in that I had done some but I still had “a great amount to complete“.