Mum’s Diary
Rained heavy all day. Work all day but felt depressed somehow. When I came to bed a night I found it had rained thro my ceiling again & the paper had torn away. Rang Peter Claxton – not in – he rang back about 11. Wrote to Malcolm. 1D 1L 2S.
Roger’s/My Diary
At lunch-time I was on duty there was nearly trouble but we coped. Periods 5 & 6 I helped Mr. Simpson prepare for the Upper 6th Parent/Teacher Interviews tonight. This evening watched the Old Grey Whistle Test featuring Elton John. I hoped they might show something of Wings’ London Concert.
Notes
A Note on the Weather
Mum noted that it rained “heavy” all day. Although the morning paper that day described the weather as “changeable“, it also contained an article about possible harmful effects of recent heavy rain.
Mum Worked for Mr Ashken and Mr Stephens
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. On this occasion, as it was Tuesday, she worked all day.
Depressed
Throughout the late seventies, and at other times, mum struggled with depression and anxiety, see Chapter 116. On this occasion, she noted that, despite being at work, she “felt depressed somehow“. While sometimes mum could identify things that made her feel more depressed, this was not always the case. In general, she felt less depressed at work. I think this was because she was busy with a clearly defined role which separated her from problems in other parts of her life. I think it also helped that she was highly valued and trusted with the consultants she worked with treating her as a professional colleague. Nevertheless, she still felt depressed on this occasion.
A Dripping Ceiling
Because of that day’s heavy rain, when mum came to bed at night, she found that it had rained through her ceiling again and the paper was peeling away. This had happened some two weeks earlier. On that occasion, it had woken her at 3.30 am and she had put a plant under the drip!
A Little Odd
I find this leak a little odd. At that time, we were living at 192 College Road, a large semi-detached house over three floors, see Chapter 117. Mum’s bedroom was on the first floor and there were two attic rooms on the floor above her. I am struggling to recall the exact layout! I think the second/attic floor covered a smaller area than the first floor. So, it is possible that mum’s room was directly below the roof. However, I don’t think it was. I think the attic rooms were directly above her.
Attic Rooms
One of these attic rooms was my sister Tricia’s (Patricia’s) but she had gone away to university at the beginning of October, see Chapter 120. I had moved into the other room relatively recently. If water was coming through mum’s ceiling from a leaking roof, I would have thought our rooms would have been affected.
A Leaking Roof
Around the same time, mum noted damp in one of the downstairs’ rooms and was treating this with Cuprinol damp proof. I suspect that all these issues were caused by a leaking roof. I think mum may have delayed fixing this because of the cost. On 21 October 1976, I noted that it looked like the roof was going to be repaired. Also, I commented that it would be expensive but it was getting unmanageable. I appeared to be implying that the problem had been going on for some time and temporary fixes had been applied, presumably to avoid the cost of more definitive work. The work was carried out in November 1976 and cost somewhere between £1,200 plus VAT and £1,725, see Chapter 117.
Peter Claxton
Peter Claxton was a builder/painter/decorator who initially did some decorating for grandma and grandad in January 1974, see Chapter 102. Mum used him for a wide variety of jobs in the late seventies. She phoned him but he was not in. I don’t know if she left a message but presumably she did and he phoned her back about 11 pm.
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 wrote to him. Given that he lived in Norwich, I wonder why she wrote to him rather than phoning him or going to see him. In general, mum found writing such letters helpful in processing and dealing with her problems and feelings. Having been a recipient of many of these letters, and later emails, over the years, I can see why she found it helpful to write them. However, it was rarely helpful to send them and almost never pleasant to receive them!
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 one flurazepam (D for Dalmane) tablet to help her sleep, one long-acting amitriptyline (L for Lentizol) tablet for depression and two senna-containing tablets (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. Recently, she had changed sleeping tablets from nitrazepam to flurazepam. She had started taking two tablets of flurazepam at night but had then reduced that dose to one.
Dinner Duty
As I was now in the Hewett sixth form, see Chapter 118, I was expected to be a prefect. One of the key responsibilities we had as prefects was to supervise the dining hall at lunch-time. We referred to this as “dinner-duty” and the incongruity of doing “dinner-duty” at “lunch-time” was lost on us then!
The dining hall was often a flashpoint for trouble between students and, as prefects, we were expected to diffuse the situation. Mostly, dinner duties passed off uneventfully. On this occasion, there was nearly trouble but I noted that “we coped“.
Lunch v Dinner
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. On this occasion, I referred to lunch-time.
Helping Mr Simpson
In my diary, I noted that I spent periods 5 and 6 helping Mr Simpson prepare for the upper sixth parent-teacher evening later that day, see Chapter 118. I recall that we had eight 35-minute periods per day but these were usually timetabled as double lessons.
I am not sure if I had a chemistry lesson at the time. More likely was that this was a time for private study and Mr Simpson asked me to help him. I am not sure what preparation would have been needed or what help I could have given. Interestingly, this incident occurred after the school announced that they were looking for students to be laboratory assistants, with a modest level of payment, and when I was given this role in March 1977, see Chapter 118. Maybe, I was trying to advance my case for being appointed to that role!
Bob Simpson
Mr Simpson had taught me chemistry in my first year and for at least part of my third year, see Chapter 103. His first name was Bob and he was one of my favourite teachers over the time I was at Hewett. He was quite influential in my choice of medicine as a career. There is an excellent clip of him teaching in the video “A Hewett Day” (5.52). When I attended the school open day in November 2024, I came across a sign for the Bob Simpson Laboratories which were presumably named after him.
“The Old Grey Whistle Test“
In the evening, I noted watching “The Old Grey Whistle Test”, see Chapter 122. This featured Elton John but I had hoped that it would have covered Wings’ concerts in London. According to a notice in the local paper, it was on BBC 2 from 11.20 pm to midnight. It was said to feature both Poco and Elton John. According to the BBC Programme Index, Poco were live in the studio.
“The Old Grey Whistle Test” was broadcast on BBC2 from 1971 to 1988. Although there were various presenters, the one I remember was Bob Harris, who presented it from 1972 to 1978. It is interesting that I mention this and not “Top of the Pops” which I am sure I watched more often in this and other periods. Perhaps I was trying to appear musically sophisticated! I recall trying to like both “The Old Grey Whistle Test” and the John Peel Show but actually struggling with both!
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