Prompted by Rebecca's post here
and this radio 4 programme
I have dug out a picture of me at 15
and extracted a few nuggets from the diary of that year.
It was a very small diary with not much room for heartfelt outpourings
but it is the music that ignites the memory.
It was a very small diary with not much room for heartfelt outpourings
but it is the music that ignites the memory.
I will spare you the meticulous record of homework, hair washes
and barfs (that's baths not the American thing).
Went over to Maxine's watched last Forsythe Saga. Very sad.
Had a barf. Washed my hair.
(oops sorry)
Fantastic NME Wembley concert.
Amen Corner, Johnny Nash, Desmond Dekker, Love Affair, Lulu, Marmalade,
Hank Marvin, Robin and Maurice Gibb, Move, Cliff Richard, Peter Sarstedt,
Scaffold, Steppenwolf, Tremeloes, Clodagh Rodgers, Tony Blackburn.
Scaffold, Steppenwolf, Tremeloes, Clodagh Rodgers, Tony Blackburn.
Sold Monkees LP for 12/6 bought Cat Stevens LP for 7/6. Good bargain.
(That was a significant transition as well as transaction.)
(That was a significant transition as well as transaction.)
Went to Carnaby Street.
Maths and geography exams diabolicale.(sic)
Killed myself in rounders tournament.
Attempted Bronze survival and failed.
Learnt to play Moonlight Sonata.
(Slow movement only like E.F Benson's Lucia.)
(Slow movement only like E.F Benson's Lucia.)
Moon Landing 9.18
3.56 Man on moon.
Took off from moon 6.54
Didn't go to school.
Amen Corner splitting
(This was tragic news.)
Went to see Forty Years On. Alan Bennett, John Gielgud.
V.G but took ages to get there.
Got called Twiggy in Oxford Street.
Emma and I got Abbey Road for 29/11.
Heard I am going on Caribbean cruise next year.
(This was on the educational cruise ship the S.S Nevasa.)
Heard I am going on Caribbean cruise next year.
(This was on the educational cruise ship the S.S Nevasa.)
Mummy got lovely dress material for my maxi.
Entered Biba competition.
Music lesson diabolical.
He is an immature scrap who enjoys a bit of fun on Saturday nights.
He can find someone else to drag around & I'm glad it won't be me.
I don't care if I never see that nit again.
And I probably won't.
He's a no good drip.
Saw The Graduate and have grown up a little.
First I sniggered at the reference to "barf" not being the "American thing". I felt in awe that you could play Moonlight Sonata. Then I was dead jealous that you had been called Twiggy.............. Finally I sat and played the Amen Corner track over and over because I had forgotten just HOW wonderful it was/is. I would dearly love to know what happened to the "no good drip", but shall let my imagination loose on that one.
ReplyDeleteWhat a WONDERFUL post Lucille. Just wonderful.
Well he was expelled from school and arrested for syphoning petrol for his motorbike out of his mother's car. I distinctly remember my father looking over the top of the local newspaper one breakfast time and reading that bit out to me. (I wasn't allowed to go on his bike.)
DeleteAnd yet I've never felt I was really living in the 60s. I wasn't quite old enough to do the hippy thing properly.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard the word 'nit' used for decades. Love the orange dahlias in the photo. Weren't you skinny. Fab diary entry. Those were the days eh!
ReplyDeleteMy dad grew wonderful dahlias and Super Star roses. I wish I'd appreciated them more.
DeleteThere's something of the young Lady Diana about you in that photo, Lucille, and you must have used a really excellent brand of shampoo. Your teenage years were much more sophisticated than mine.
ReplyDeleteOf course I hated my hair. It should have been straight. There was no conditioner in the house, a weedy hair dryer and certainly no tongs. I do remember ironing it between sheets of brown paper once.
Delete29/11 for Abbey Road! That's diabolicale! :)
ReplyDeleteI was a Marmalade fan too.
From memory I had thought all LPs cost 32/6. I did a lot of weekend and evening jobs to be able to afford them.
ReplyDeleteHow fondly I remember the Bronze survival class, dear Lucille. Just you, me and resusci-Annie diving for bricks in the deep end. Happy, happy days.
ReplyDeleteYes dear Ada we have trodden this water before have we not?
DeleteLucille, that's just priceless! And what a fabulous Wembley line up!
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have had more liberal parents than I - everything I did in my teens was done so surreptitiously, and a diary would have had to be Enigma-coded to bypass my mother.
I didn't think they were particularly liberal at the time, but actually I was pretty timid compared to some of my friends and my younger sister got up to far more mischief than I did!. My mother almost certainly read the diary. The next one was a 5 year diary with a lock but I must have left the key in it because there is an entry saying that I thought I'd better take the key out in future!
DeleteAhh, Amen Corner...
ReplyDeleteI have just found out that they are fellow Welsh people! Why didn't I know that at the time? Perhaps because I was in London by then?
Your best post to date, I think, Lucille.
Thank you. All that diary keeping must have been good training for the blog. Of course it wouldn't have been a public blog!
DeleteWhereabouts in London were you?
Mostly Harrow, South Harrow and Northolt is where I had lodgings but spent a lot of time in the Capital in the evenings. It was easy, then, to get the underground home.
DeleteI wish I'd kept a diary in my teen years, but an earlier one had been found by my older sister and she shared it with everyone. Enjoyed yours.
ReplyDeleteI first read this on my mobile but have yet to figure out how to leave a comment on it...anyway, I'm so glad you posted these nuggets! You were a sweet, rather shy looking fifteen. I want you to know that I never passed a single set of swimming lessons let alone the Bronze Cross level, but I did love to swim without the pressure to learn things properly. Typical. I suppose Robin and Maurice Gibb had yet to form the Bee Gees? Steppenwolf was the only other name I recognized from your Wembley list.
ReplyDeleteYou saw Alan Bennett and John Gielgud on stage, live? Lucky, lucky!
I like how your ultimate descriptive word is 'diabolical' and mine is 'wierd'.
I longed to see The Graduate but looked too young to sneak in - think I was about 12 ... no ID in those days, just slap on enough eye shadow to get away with it. A more sophisticated looking 13yo friend would recount every detail at the bus stop.
ReplyDeleteThis is so great on so many levels. (My British sister-in-law is Maxine so I like that there's a Maxine in your diary too.) I just love all the 1960s references, the Graduate, the music....
ReplyDelete