March 31, 1978

Today was a disaster area. So is this page.

Disaster 1: We went to the park and the Owens came.

Disaster 2: We went to Coventry to see ‘The Rescuers’ but it was full. So we had to go round BORING museums + shops.

Disaster 3: There was no ‘Disney Time’ or ‘Going Straight’ and this was the last ‘Goodies’.

Disaster 4: Theresa, the horrible borrowing + never giving back neighbor, baby sat. It should be ‘horror-sat’.

The Owens were one of those families with a child every year, all of them horrible…

March 30, 1978

This morning Bobby + Morgan had a good old argue. Dodo + I banished them from our room. We then watched ‘Why Don’t You,’ ‘Boy from Lappland’, ‘Lippy Lion’ and ‘Puzzle Party’. WE played ‘Bad Eggs’ in Feldon. We had lunch. There was pitta bread (Greek bread) . Jocelyn + I played Frust*. We went to the theatre to see ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ about four lovers that Puck muddled up. We had supper when we got home. Then we watched ‘The Good Life’ and ‘Living in the Past’.
*Frustration

I cannot remember how to play Bad Eggs, but Frustration is still available, and is a version of Ludo.

March 29, 1978

This morning when I got up it was quite late. I went over to Kerens to skip. Halfway through I went home for a bit cos Keren had a rope burn. After that I watched ‘Boy from Lappland’ and ‘Lippy Lion’. After lunch I cleaned my room. Then Bobby + I made a library. Then I made a sculpture from wood and then watched ‘Screen Test’ and ‘Grange Hill’. We waited a while + Morgan + Dodo came. We went to bed after supper + a game.

I wasn’t a particularly good skip-er.. still am not.

March 28, 1978

I did a crossword nearly then we set out for Exeter but we stayed a while there in the library where I read a book but didn’t finish it and we had lunch (pasties, cookies, apples + 7up) in a rest area on the motorway and when we got back Mummy + I went shopping and then I made some Choc Chip Cookies and watched ‘The Princess And The Potion’ (Playhouse) and ‘Take Hart’ and after supper (mushroom soup + cheese) and a bath I watched ‘The Rockford Files’, Robins Nest’ + ‘The Vet’, a programme about a vet, and then I went to bed with an aching chest. 9.10 p.m.

It is a little confusing having us drive to Exeter at the start of the holiday and then drive there again as we are on our way home – but my grandfather and his family used to live in a very small village just outside Exeter, so I have finally worked out that we must have nipped into town and I went to the library while my parents bought lunch, on our way home…

March 27, 1978

This morning I watched ‘Why Don’t You…’ and ‘Boy from Lappland’. We drove to Pringle Bridge and walked a way and back. Then we had lunch. It was pasties, and an ice. Then we walked up a hill, 743 feet! I had sweets on the way down. We had tea when we got back and then I did Cross-quiz. Then we watched on television ‘The Wonderful World of Disney Easter Special’. Then, after supper (and bath) we played Racing Demon.

If you have never played Racing Demon, this is another game my mother indulged in with us children – it is guaranteed to destroy all your playing cards. Each player has a pack, and you basically play a form of solitaire but against each other, trying to get rid of a stack of cards first. Cards are twisted and torn, hands slapped, and all kinds of non-approved behaviour indulged in, including I’m sure a bit of mild swearing on the part of my mother.

March 26, 1978

Today is Easter Day

TODAY IS EASTER! I woke at 5 because of a bad dream about Dracula. I went back to sleep. When I went down there were no presents but I got a card. I got a small Smarties egg under an egg cosy. After breakfast I got some felts, another egg, a puzzle ring and a Bible. After a good deal of playing and reading I went to church. Then I found 3 eggs in the sitting room. In the afternoon I watched Noel Edmonds Swap Shop awards programme. And then I played outside. Then after supper I saw ‘A.C.G.A.S’* and ‘Love Story’, a movie.
*All Creatures Great And Small

I wonder what happened to that Bible – I have one given to me at my christening as a baby, which is a white, hardly opened King James Version, and one I bought myself as a teenager, which is a falling apart Good News Bible. It’s slightly possible my parents found the christening one in a cupboard and gave me it when they finally resigned themselves to my irritating holy nature…

March 25, 1978

Easter Eve

This morning I overslept on purpose. After breakfast we drove out to Doone Valley. Bobby was sick on the way and also the way Daddy + I measured a farmhouse because Dads drawing said there was a bulge in the wall. We had lunch in the car, and then drove to Tarn Steps where we had a good long walk. Tea was when we got home, and supper after a good long romp in the garden. I had my bath and then I drew + was read to. Then I went to bed. 9.10 p.m.

My father is a keen, nay, fanatical amateur historian, mainly of houses and cottages. I used to love being his assistant and holding the other end of the tape measure. He also used to read us the books that he liked as a child – Swallows and Amazons, and C.S. Lewis, among others – I think I still have his Swallows and Amazons books somewhere.

March 24, 1978

Today is Good Friday

Until it was time for children’s T.V. I (and David and Bobby) went and played war. I made a crutch. Then I watched Jackanory and Boy from Lappland. We went to Killerton – it is having a new display of costumes and it opened today. When we got back we had lunch. After lunch we played hospitals and made Lego things. We went to feed the donkeys. After tea we played Sardines. One person hides and the others look for him and when they find him hide with him until evryone finds him. After dinner we went out and then watched The Goodies.

My mother is great at children’s games – I remember all my cousins and my uncle being astonished that she played Sardines with us.
I have just discovered a very sad website that has all the programmes that were on any given day, ever, as far as I can see.

March 23, 1978

No school today

Mummy + I went shopping and got me some new shoes and new white socks. I also wore my new dress. It is off white with tiny flowers and bigger flowers (orangy-brown) on the yoke + ruffle. After that I watched T.V. until it was time to go to the dentist. I got 1 filling. Bobby got 1 and needs 3 more! What a disgrace! After lunch we drove to Exeter. There we played with David our 9-year-old half-uncle. We watched Blue Peter and, in the evening (during + after supper) Tomorrows World, The Good Life and Living In The Past.

OK, are you paying attention? Before my parents met, my father’s mother died. She had four children – my father and three sisters. My grandfather (my father’s father) remarried and when he was 60, and his second wife 40, their only son David was born. He is therefore my half-uncle; he now works as a solicitor in the urban regeneration sector. We were never allowed to watch TV and eat at the same time, but my grandfather's house had a very small TV in the dining room, rather than a larger one in the sitting room; they were posher than us.

March 22, 1978

Last day of term! For handwriting Mr. Crowther gave us a poem about the sea. We had a spelling + a maths test.  I did half of Games but the other half I skipped and helped Mrs Hunt. No Science. I made Mrs Hunt an Easter card and everyone signed it.
I WENT TO SEE ABBA THE MOVIE with Debbie!!!!!
It is about a reporter who has to get an interview with Abba.  He does it in the end after a lot of hard work.

I remember this film very distinctly, even though I can’t have seen it again – the reporter interviews loads of fans and doormen, roadies etc. but eventually catches up with the band in a lift.

March 21, 1978

this morning we had a quiz. i forgot to ask mrs. Hunt about watching a programme but i will tomorrow. after play we did antonyms in english. no recorder. i played with Lillian. in art i made a bunny card and an egg card for easter. we talked about easter in scripture. i did my topic on victorian nursery. i watched ‘take hart’. i also watched (after supper) robins nest. it is about a man called robin and his restaurant robins nest.

I’ve recently started watching “Man About the House”, which Robin’s Nest was the sequel to – sadly I can’t find any re-runs of Robin’s Nest.  Perhaps when Man About the House has finished playing all the episodes?

March 20, 1978

we woke up late. instead of assemby we had a cliff richard film about israel. after play (and flute) we learned to tell the time in french. we did our history topic after lunch. p.e. was awful. we lost both games. i will see ‘abba – the movie’ with debbie on wednesday. after school i watched t.v. after supper i saw ‘ask the family’. i went to a film with mummy. it was ‘pygmaleon’ about a cockney girl who was taught to talk properly. i didn’t go to guides.

The film was apparently called "His Land" and, probably rightly so, was unavailable for a number of years but has now made a comeback on DVD.

March 19, 1978

Last night at midnight we went onto DST* so the clocks were 1 hour forward. I woke at 7 (really 6) and dripped water on B to get lights on permission. She had only just woken again when after breakfast we went to the paper shop. I got a ‘MAD’! We had and Easter egg hunt. I got 8. After lunch we went to Aunt Ginny’s She gave us a reasonable tea and when we got to Oxford again we had supper and watched ‘The Pheonix and the Carpet’. Then we drove home.
*Daylight Saving Time

Aunt Ginny was my eccentric maiden great-aunt, who had a tendency to serve you things that had been hanging around the house for weeks – waste not, want not. However her hoarding instinct meant that ephemera never got thrown away. I inherited her Chinese sewing table, which is a lovely thing in itself, but which is filled with years and years of sewing bits and pieces, from Victorian through the whole 20th century, and which she was still using pretty much all of. Except perhaps the glove-stretchers.

March 18, 1978

This morning we (I, sorry) woke at seven. I took my Immy, a life-size paper doll, down from the wall to measure to make clothes. We drove to Oxford. Ten minutes out Mummy remembered something so we went back. We saw Star Wars in the afternoon. It was super. Bid made ice cream sodas for us and we played + watched T.V. There was a dinner party in the evening. I am sharing a room with B. and we stole a few biccys.

This must have been the first Star Wars film, but for some reason I remembered seeing it with my cousins when it first came out (which was the previous year). But it seems it only came out in the UK just after Christmas, when we were in the US.

March 17, 1978

After Assembelly we had a film about Coventry.  I did clay work after play + I made a coil pot.  Post lunch we were taken to the Belgrade Theatre dans* Coventry.  We saw, or be particular, took part in, and Adventure In the Deep.  We went to Atlantis and we got a Citizens Card! I got back in time to watch Jackanory.  Ballet: I was in the best mime group.  After supper I watched the Goodies.
*in

I remember miming nursery rhymes at Ballet; I was much better at this side of it than the actual dancing, and after I stopped doing ballet I went to an acting group, but I never went very far with it.  I do occasionally have to record my voice at work, though, and I’m quite good at keeping it consistent, so perhaps I learned something.

March 16, 1978

It snowed and we made a snowman! Maths was Graded Papers. Swimming was Mrs. Fletcher (ugh). This week I am having school dinners, and they are super! Mr. Antcliffe took us for Libry + Geog. After school Bobby + I declared Spring, in a ‘Smash the snow’ ceremony. Jackanory was a tangle for the heroine, and Blue Peter ahad a toll collector at a turnpike. Daddy + I went to the library. Evenings T.V. included The Good Life and Iron Age Living.

I seem to have been very fond of these multi-coloured entries. I don’t think I’ll inflict any more on you, or me.

We interrupt this blog to say...

I know I have a fair few readers (well, more than just me and my husband) but mainly lurkers. I wanted to post a post as me-now not me-then to say a couple of things:

Please do comment! Although perhaps you have nothing to say... in which case perhaps better not to say it...

Secondly, I could use some advice. I am thinking of moving the blog (do Blogger censor their posts? will they read this and delete) because it's very, very slow here. I usually create my posts in Word and publish up here, but I can only do that on my Windows machine at home, not on my Mac laptop and not on my Mac work machine and not if I'm on the road. So unless I'm in the house in the evening, and don't want to watch TV or speak to my husband, not much gets typed up. I was hoping to do this more or less as the year rolled along but as you can see, I'm woefully behind.

Any editing is very very slow, the cursor moves at will to somewhere other than where you place it, and the formatting doesn't survive the transition to the blog from Word, nor can I set the date differently to "now" so I have to change that within the Blogger system too. It definitely makes other internet applications run slowly but I think it makes all applications run slowly, too.

So, what I'm wondering, is whether anyone has any better ideas. Preferably cheap (not necessarily free), and I would really like to keep my colour scheme, my links, and if it is not free, be able to use e.g Google ads, and to be able to put my own code in for my invisible counter. I can cope with basic HTML coding, and have learned a little about style sheets through doing this blog.

Any suggestions? I don't need more than one author, if that helps.

March 15, 1978

There was a poem about a mouse in Handwriting.  NO Games becaze we were to watch the Harrisson v Lovell, Whittle v Smith and H v S house netball matches.  Later in the day the Staff won the staff v 4th year match. Netball is a girls game, but Mr. Raven played.  In Piano Miss Cranston taught be about the pedal and also about TRIADS. I managed to watch all of Jacaknory (miracle cos my house is 5 min from piano and Jackanory starts when piano ends) I read Bugsy Malone and watched The Liver Birds in the evening.

Harrison, Lovell, Whittle and Smith were the four houses at my junior school.

March 14, 1978

I had a piano exam, Grade 3.  I made a  couple of mistakes about the scales, but all the pieces were OO.K. I heard this morning that I passed the Kings High examination, but I shan’t go there.  We went to the museum.  It was fun.  There was a film about Warwickshire Geology! I watched Playhouse, and also Take Hart, with Morph the Plasticene man.  After lambchop supper, there was Robins Nest. I lost a tooth.  I shall see if I get 10p without telling anyone.

I don’t think I was really that excited about geology…

March 13, 1978

I think I shall join SAM (Society for the Abolition of Monday). But if it worked Tuesday would play the same role. You can’t win. Anyway, flute was Sciliano mainly. Nothing else important, except I watched all the T.V. possible (except Ludwig) and at Guides I lost my hat while doing a quiz.
Monday, and all the depression of back to school after the weekend.

I have recently started working with Guides again, and let me assure you, they do not wear hats any more!

December 3, 1978

This morning I ‘Catherned*’. We gave the dolls a ballet lesson, and my Sasha and Katy Sizer’s Clare came top in the Tap (the Clog dance from La Fille Mal Gardée). Then we gave them a piano lesson. Jane played best and got on farthest. Sasha got on second farthest and Lilly Lucy played second best. After lunch and some nellyphant sewing I went to a rehearsal of the Xmas guide play. I am a boy in it called Simon. He hasn’t much to say apart from teasing the blind girl and arguing with his sister.

*Visited Catherine

March 12, 1978

In order of importance

1. P.M. My hair was cut short. I now have a super style

2. P.M. Before I had my hair cut Bobby drew round me to make a super new poster of a giant paper doll called Imogen Image.

I also watched The Pheonix and the Carpet (new series) and I did all manner of things, including baking a banana cake.

The Phoenix and the Carpet was based on one of my favourite books, by E. E. Nesbit.

March 11, 1978

My one and only stupid sometimes, pestering others, but generally reasonable brother took the 8 year old King Henry VIII exam. I will go there next year. We shopped in Coventry. I was going to get a bra but there aren’t any big enough. I had a piano lesson. I read Children of Morrow all through. I got 6p worth of sweets from Robins Corner. You get a lot from there. I saw, Hit the Note, and Jim’ll Fix it.

Now, if I was buying a bra these days I wouldn’t be very surprised to find one not big enough (I’m a Bravissimo girl) but I wasn’t that developed!

March 10, 1978

I made a clay cradle for Woodwork. In French we had a quiz. It was jolly hard. I normally eat the broken biscuits when I sell them, but I didn’t. In Music we heard all of Holy Moses (a record) possible in half an hour. There was a film about Spacelab and one about growing hardwoods. I saw all programmes possible except Going Straight. No Walt Disney World. Miss Thorpe says my ballet is much better.

For those not familiar with, or who don’t remember, UK television in the 1970s, there was a short set of programmes for children between about 3.30 p.m. and 6 p.m. on BBC1 and on ITV, followed by the news, followed by more programming that I might have been allowed to watch, on all THREE channels (BBC1, 2 and ITV) from about 7pm to 9pm.

March 9, 1978

cold on March 9^th I feel misser*

Mummy said I wouldn’t have to go swimming but I did. We had Mr. Antcliffe (pantcliffe, hope he falls off a cliff). For the rest we wrote a story. Mine was about the Sealys warning. After school I flumped into a kitchen chair and did my homework. Then I dashed downstairs to see Jackanory. I saw all the T.V. In the evening there was Tomorrows World, The Good Life and Living In The Past. Then bed.

*miserable

Living in the Past was one of the first reality TV shows – families try to live Iron Age style. No evictions, though.

March 8th 1978

Conversation to Mummy after school: “Oh, Mummy, school was wonderful and we did a poem ‘bout a ghost and I drew him pointin’ to a cemetery. Aft’r lunch we were taken to a farm in Stoneleigh. We saw the cows and them bein’ milked!” I didn’t have a very long piano lesson as I was tired and so made mistakes. I watched Grange Hill. We had a baby sitter, Sue Bell. She is marvelous. I watched Quincy.

I am pretty sure that it was Sue whose children I later babysat for, and made an orange Halloween cake with licorice decorations.

March 7 1978

This morning in Assembly we learned a new hymn. Actually, two. I got nearly everything right for Maths! An’ in English we learned about sentences. I drew a penguin in Art, but we could draw whatever we fancied. An’ fer Scripsher we learned ‘bout two Italyans what went ter England. Mummy, Bobby an’ me went to the lib’ry after school an’ I watched Playhouse.

No, we did not talk like that where I grew up, honest!

March 6 1978

H.W.U.T.L. was all about rations and how they affected people in the war. I got out early from selling biscuits so I had first flute. We concentrated on the Scicliano. In French we learned about ne ____ pas. After P.E. nearly the whole class changed desks. I now sit by Amanda. We had tapioca for supper. Mummy (wonderful thing she is) came to our Guides. I feel rotten.

I’m assuming I was ill, rather than feeling bad that my mum had come to Guides!

March 5 1978

mothers day

In the morning when we got up I went down to the basement and got Mummys pot plant and choclate gingers. I gave her the card that I got from Boots (See Feb 24). Bobby and I typed the silly programme on our cassette. Sometime after lunch we went to St. Nicholas Park . Super but no stuff cos winter. I watched ‘Return to Sula’ and ‘The Muppets’. Sula is about a boy who draws animals.

Mothering Sunday was later this year (March 26^th) and I’m sorry to report that both I and my husband forgot to send cards. My excuse was a bit better than his – my mother went to visit my brother in Spain at the start of that week and I’d forgotten her travel dates. But we both rang our mothers…

March 4 1978

Saturday
I lounged in the a.m. before I went shopping. When I got home Katie Sizer was there. We played and read her Misty in the a.m. We went to the park in p.m. after having mussroom* soup for lunch. We swang bootless p.m. in the park. In the p.m. we made fudge with Katie Sizer. Katie and I played games and she went home. My room was wallpapered a.m. I went to bed early, sore throat.
*Mushroom

Misty was a really spooky comic – I had forgotten about it!

March 3 1978

Today is Friday
We are having freak weather: First snow, now as hot as summer! I made a mouse paper doll before school (B. S.) In School Arithmetic was a test on the four rules of number (i.e. 1+1 = 2, 1-1=0, 1x1=1, 1(1=1) French was again ‘going’. In Woodwork I finished my foot. For Music we learned the notes values and such like. We had a spelling test. My glasses were fixed. Old ones worn. We wrote a story. Ballet, new step. Walt Disney, Goodies and Going Straight.

March 2 1978

Opinion day.
Assembly: radio – About Skinny (Sarah) and Blimp (Steven) and the house martins. Good. Maths and French: Maths, I did more Decimal Notation. French, we revised on animals from the farm. Maths, good but slightly boring. French, awright. Library: I didn’t exchange ‘Child of China’ because it wasn’t finished. Mainly chatter. Good. The Mikado, theatre: Comic opera by Gilbert + Sullivan. Very funny. Supper + post supper: Tomorrows world, The Good Life, and Living In the Past. Lovely (like the Mikado).

March 1 1978

In Science we (Katie S. and I) did experiments about lamination. There was no handwriting lesson as Mr. Crowther, who teaches that and Science, was teaching Mr. Randalls class. I did 2 graded papers. I forgot, accidentally on purpose, my gym kit. I managed to watch almost all of Jackanory. I got some sweets. I saw Grange Hill, and ‘The Liver Birds’.

I don’t think I’ve ever been keen on gym… I don’t know what Katie (Sizer) is doing now but I do remember she and her sister were adopted.