Mum’s Diary
Went to see Dr W in am. Put me on Dalmane instead of Mogadon. To go again in 3 wks. June said what about getting another job on Mons & Thurs. I thought it a good idea & asked her to let me know if she heard of one. Had letter from P, Mary & Cecil. Met Vera Frost in Jarrolds for lunch—she paid! V nice. Mum came for tea. Started doing patchwork cushion for Gift Day. Sent P “Joseph” music. Malcolm called but I was out – rang him & took dup round – saw Christine. M. says he will come Monday. Went to GTE in am. Rang FR at night. V windy. 2 D 1 L 2 S.
Roger’s/My Diary
Worked very hard today but didn’t get too much homework. For much of the day some people were showing a group of Swiss girls around. At lunch-time I avoided a maths lesson as James couldn’t make it so I didn’t think it was worth going. This evening did some of my homework but not much.
Notes
GP Appointment
Dr W refers to Dr Welch, mum’s GP. She saw him in the morning. He changed her sleeping tablets from nitrazepam (Mogadon) to flurazepam (Dalmane), see Chapter 116. He told her to come back and see him in three weeks.
Dr D M Welch
Dr D M Welch was one of the GPs at the Mile End Surgery that we had belonged to since we moved to Norwich, see Chapter 78. They also had a surgery in Tuckswood that mum sometimes used. This practice is now known as Castle Partnership, see Chapter 116.
Another Job
During this period, mum worked as part-time medical secretary for the private practice of two surgeons, Mr Ashken and Mr Stephens, see Chapter 121. This practice was based at 41 Newmarket Road. She worked all day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and half day on Fridays.
June was the receptionist/secretary at Mile End Road surgery. Mum knew her both as a patient and professionally. I suspect mum was complaining to her about money and she suggested that mum should get another job on Mondays and Thursdays, that is the days she was not working for Mr Ashken and Mr Stephens. Mum thought this was a good idea and later did so although not until September 1977, see Chapter 121. Mum asked June to let her know if she heard of any jobs going but I am not sure anything came of this.
I don’t know much else about June. In May 1977, she collapsed at work and had been in the West Norwich Hospital. She phoned mum as she wanted her to make an appointment for herto see Mr Stephens, see Chapter 116.
Letters
Mum was an outstanding correspondent keeping in touch with a wide range of people. This meant she often received letters and noted three on this occasion.
Tricia
P refers to my older sister Tricia (Patricia). She had recently gone to university in Cambridge, see Chapter 120. Mum wrote to us extremely regularly while we were at university. While at on level, this was great, it also brought a burden as mum expected a response! I eventually settled into a routine of writing to her regularly once a week and this seemed to placate her. I think Tricia was better at handling this than I was. I believe this was the second letter she had written to mum in under two weeks.
I am not sure if Tricia specifically requested it but mum sent Tricia the music for “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat“. During her time at Cambridge, Tricia was very involved in Methsoc. They performed “Joseph” on 21 November 1976 at Wesley Methodist Church and we went to Cambridge for the day to see the performance and to see Tricia, see Chapter 124.
Mary Leach
Mum also received a letter from Mary and I believe this refers to Mary Leach. She was the wife of Methodist Minister Derrick Leach. She and mum became firm friends when Derrick came to be Methodist Minister in Kirkby in Ashfield in September 1959, see Chapter 69. Although both families had moved away subsequently, mum and Mary remained in touch. Mary and Derrick were my godparents and I recall them as Auntie Mary and Uncle Derrick.
Cecil
Mum also received a letter from Cecil. While I am not exactly sure who he was, he and mum seemed close in the late seventies writing to each other frequently. My impression is that they had met on a Methodist Guild Holiday prior to 1975. In 1976, mum was disappointed that she had managed to book her holiday in Dunoon so that she was leaving on the day he arrived! However, because of an illness mum developed at the end of her holiday, their time together overlapped more than she had originally thought it would. Nevertheless, over time their correspondence gradually reduced and the last letter mum noted receiving from him was in July 1977. In June 1978, mum heard from Joyce Boxall that Cecil was remarrying and this upset her, see Chapter 114.
It is possible that his surname was Beck. As a result of mum’s illness, Cecil had driven her and my two younger siblings to Glasgow in mum’s car. However, the car had then broken down there. Mum, Alan and Liz had continued their journey home by train to Edinburgh and flight to Norwich. Some days later, the car returned home courtesy of AA Relay. I noted that Mr Beck had been unable to bring it, as perhaps had been originally planned, as the clutch had burned out. While I am not absolutely sure that Cecil Beck was one person, I think it makes sense that mum referred to him as Cecil while I referred to him as Mr Beck.
A Free Lunch
Mum noted that she met Vera Frost for lunch in Jarrolds. She thought this was very nice, especially as Vera paid which merited an exclamation mark, see Chapter 124.
Vera Frost
Vera Frost was a very longstanding friend of mum’s from the time we first moved to Norwich in 1960. She babysat for us in the early 1960s and we also went on a joint family holiday to Bacton in August 1963, see Chapter 81. She kept in contact with mum much later when they were both living in Hethersett. Her maiden name was Curtis and she married Brian Frost in 1956, the same year that mum and dad got married. She was involved in Young Wives with mum.
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.
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, there is a good example as mum referred to going out for lunch but having grandma round for tea. I also referred to a lunch-time lesson.
Grandma Came for Tea
At this time, my grandmother Ethel Parkin was living in Drayton just outside Norwich. We usually went there for tea on Sundays, see Chapter 122, but grandma did come to ours at other times including on this occasion for tea.
Patchwork Cushion
Mum started making a patchwork cushion. This was for the Young Wives’ stall at the gift day of St Peter’s Park Lane Methodist Church, see Chapter 124. This day was held on Thursday 18 November 1976 and raised over £1,900. The Young Wives’ stall raised just over £40.
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, mum noted that he called round but she was out. She rang him and took some duplicating (dup) round. She saw his wife Christine. Malcolm said he would come to see her on Monday.
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 that she took Malcolm Carter some duplicating (dup).
Work for Rev Eddy
GTE refers to Rev G T Eddy who was the Chairman of the Methodist District. Based on her CV, see Chapter 105, mum did some part-time secretarial work for him between 1973 and 1977, see Chapter 121. On this occasion, mum noted that she went there in the morning (am).
Rev Geoffrey Thackeray Eddy
Rev Geoffrey Thackeray Eddy was born in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1915 and entered the Ministry in 1936. It appears he became Chairman of the East Anglia District in 1972 having previously held the same post in Lincoln. He died in Stratford-on-Avon in 2014.
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, mum rang him at night.
A Note on the Weather
Mum noted that it was very windy. This was confirmed by the header for the local paper that morning which described the weather as “wet and windy“.
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 two flurazepam (D for Dalmane) tablets to help her sleep, one long-acting amitriptyline (L for Lentizol) tablet for depression and one senna-containing tablet (S for Senokot) for constipation. She had been trying to wean herself off both antidepressants and sleeping tablets but had been advised by her GP to increase them once again because of her current feelings of severe depression.
Working Hard
I had just started sixth form at the Hewett School, see Chapter 118. One of the recurring themes in my diaries of that time was the step up in workload from O level to A level. This was not perhaps helped by the fact that I was doing pure maths, physics and chemistry at A level and in addition I was doing two O levels at the end of lower sixth. These were Latin, which was a three-year course I had started in fourth year, and biology which I was aiming to do in a year to be eligible to apply for medicine.
On this occasion, I noted that we worked hard but didn’t get too much homework. This meant that, at night, while I did some homework I could say that it had been “not much“.
Lunch-time Maths Lesson
As part of the overall heavy workload, I did quite often have additional lessons after school or at lunch-time, see Chapter 118. These were sometimes because of timetabling problems while, on other occasions, they were specific preparation for the more able students who might have been taking S levels and/or Oxbridge entrance exams. I suspect this maths lesson might have fitted into this category. It appears that it only involved two of us so, when I discovered that James Jarvis could not make it, I decided it wasn’t worth going on my own!
James Jarvis
James Jarvis was extremely bright and often came ahead of me in different exams. In 1976, he won subject prizes in biology and additional mathematics. Then, in 1977, he won the subject prize in physics and also the Harmer Memorial Prize for Mechanics. In 1978, he won the subject prize for pure maths. He and I did S level lessons together. However, from memory, he got an inexplicably low grade in one of his A levels. According to the 1978 examination results booklet, he gained five A levels in applied maths, pure maths, pure and applied maths, physics and chemistry. He gained a distinction in physics and a merit in pure maths. According to that year’s prizegiving leaflet, he went on to study physics at university in London, see Chapter 118.
Swiss Girls
I noted, perhaps with a tinge of regret, that some people, other than me (!), spent much of the day showing a group of visiting Swiss girls around the school. I am not sure why they were in school. It was possibly some form of exchange visit although I am not aware that the school had exchange links with Switzerland at that time. Another possibility is that it was a visiting choir, orchestra or sports team. According to the video “A Hewett Day” (11.55), it was common to have foreign students visiting the school. Featured in the video are visitors from Austria and Spain, see Chapter 118.
Leave a Reply