Sun 5th – Went to church. Confirmation. Played football and did Clarkie’s homework. Mrs Clark was the Biology teacher.
Mon 6th – Cliffy is a fool. Tried my notes in project. didn’t work.
Tue 7th – Saw film Elmer Gantry (Good film). Did two pages of the project. I’ve no idea which project this was.
Wed 8th – Went to school. Went to town with Flab (Michael Blackburn) as usual.
Thu 9th – Didn’t go to school. Ma poorly. She didn’t like my cooking.
Fri 10th – (Good Friday) Went to town ground. Town drew 0-0 with Kilmarnock
Sat 11th – Had a bath. Drew with Cow Close 5-5 (??)

Sun 12th – didn’t go to church. Went out with Michael. Stayed (??)
Mon 13th – Sergeant Blyth came to school to talk about Atlantic. This was Chay Blyth – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chay_Blyth of crossing the Atlantic fame. Quite the newsworthy item at the time.
Tue 14th – Went to Edgerton Teacher Training college. This was Holly Bank – somewhere many of us from the north attended prior to teaching in F.E. My main memory of that day was when the local Councellor pushed over the rostrum to wake us all up!
Wed 15th – Went to Edgerton Teacher Training college. got sore throat
Thu 16th – Went to school. Stayed in and saw ‘Spiders web’ film
Fri 17th – Didn’t go to town. Stayed in. Michael and Willy cought with gum.
Sat 18th – Went to town ground. Reserves won 1-0. Saw S. Town won Millwall 3-1. did 6 pages of project.

Sun 19th – Went to church. got a palm cross. Did 9 pages of project (22)
Mon 20th – Went and served, saw and helped at Patience. No project done. Try to get 6/- for trip. Patience was that year’s school play and I was never a thespian. So to be part of the event, I’d obviously volunteered to help out on the night.
Tue 21st – Did same as Monday. 4 pages of project. Finished. Break-up school
Wed 22nd – Baby sat. Handed in project. Leeds lost Bolgna 1-0
Thu 23rd – Went out with Wilbur, michael, Pete and Trog.
Fri 24th – Went to fair twice. Met E. (Pete), Flab, Trog. Saw S. 
Sat 25th – Town lost Northampton 0-2.

Sun 26th – (easter Sunday) 30 mile Marathon. Went to church. 4 hours sleep. Started at 12.15am. I remember doing two of these Marathons, around the outer reaches of huddersfield itself. In effect a midnight walk for teenagers!!
Mon 27th – Did all 30 miles of Marathon. Finished 9.50am. Went in bath.  2 hours sleep. town lost 1-0 to Wolves.
Tue 28th – Still recovering, aches and bruises, sprain. Played Bradford, lost 14-13. Town lost to Wolves Fartown 13-6 to Bradford.
Wed 29th – Went to town with the usual except trog.
Thu 30th – Went to town. Had a haircut. Very short. Played Monopoly with Peter and Flab at Pete’s.
Fri 31st – Went to grandma’s. Went to town with usual except Trog andWilly. Saw Willy in town.

Wed 1st – Did 4 more pages. didn’t do Games
Thu 2nd – Went to Town boys. Got badges. (Rugby)
Fri 3rd – went to town with Michael, Willy and Pete (we used to go to various coffee bars!)
Sat 4th – Town boys v Wakefield (I hope they lose – I obivously didn’t get picked to play!) Lost 50-4. Town 1-0, Fartown 7-12. 3 pages.

Sun 5th – Went to church. Did one page of project. Total 42. Now the numbers in the margins first seen in January become clear – the pages are project pages. I can’t remember what the project was exactly – but i think it was all about bread and was contributed towards my Geography CSE result. Imagine kids doing 50 pages these days?
Mon 6th – Cliffy is a twit. Did one page. Wheat germ. (there you go) 
Tue 7th – Eyesight same. Had a test. Peters (??) Mrs Stokes.
Wed 8th – Ash Wednesday. Played Salandine Nook. won 11-3. did 2 proj (pages). Burnley got hammered by fans.
Thu 9th
Fri 10th – Mam’s birthday. Project to be in. Went to town.
Sat 11th – Town Boys v Doncaster.  Won 23-0. Town 1-1. Fartown 8-10

Sun 12th – Did garden. Didn’t go to church
Mon 13th – No school. Dug garden. Coddington scored Sat 11th.
Tue 14th – Navvies came to drain house. Went under the boards. Water used to collect under our house and as this was not long after we moved in my resourceful dad hadn’t yet designed a drain away – although that’s probably what the garden digging was about.
Wed 15th – Went back to school. Played Salandine Nook. Won 15-5
Thu 16th – Interview 11.30am. Arranged interview with tech. bought tickets. Interviews would be for when I left school in July. I suspect the forst one was at LCOT (Leeds). No idea what the tickets were for.
Fri 17th – Decided to go to Blackburn to watch town. Went to town
Sat 18th – Went to Blackburn. 0-2. Fartown won Liverpool.

Sun 19th – Didn’t go to church. Went to grandma’s with kids. Got 8 sponsors. Still got train tickets from Blackburn.
Mon 20th – Did wood for CSE.
Tue 21st – Had conversation with Steeny. Saw film and did homework. Letter arrived concerning interview.
Wed 22nd – Did games. Won one. Went to rugby practice.
Thu 23rd – Mam and dad went to school. Told to see Mr. Burns (head)
Frid 24th – Saw Mr Burns about job.
Sat 25th

Sun 26th – Did garden. Saw Irish on Bradley. Didn’t go to church
Mon 27th – Interview at tech. Told to fill in one slip. Did project.
Tue 28th – Trip to SUGDEN’s flour mill. Got a pancake mix free.

January 6th: Had a haircut – bought the diary! Decided to go to Blackburn (tomorrow)
January 7th: Match postponed – couldn’t go to Blackburn. Fartown (RL club) played St. Helens
January 8th: Went to church. Later went to New house

And that’s it for the first week. Looking at what follows, the entries tell me why the match was postponed – but read on and see for yourselves: (Remember I only became 15 last month!)

January 9th:     Sledging. Town for Division one (accompanied by a small drawing of a football ground)
January 10th:   School starts. Went to Halifax. 7-0 against BA. Not sure what the BA is – although at the time Bradford had two clubs: City and Park Avenue
January 11th: School second day. Clayton (teacher) is a fool. Went to rugby practice and to Mrs. Stocks. Mrs Stocks was my elocution teacher!
January 12th:  Moved (house) to 88 Warrenside. Steeny (Mr Steen – teacher) is an Irish Lepracorn
January 13th:  Steeny is still a fool. Kept in by him.
January 14th:  Town won (beat!) Bolton 2:1. Televised

From here – to be in keeping with the diary, weeks will start on Sundays. There are numbers in the margins – but I don’t know what they mean

January 15th: Went to Church. Saw ‘TOWN’ on tele. 3 pages of project.
January 16th: School. Cliffy kept us in all for the sake of a pencil – silly old fool. ‘Cliffy’ was Mr. Cliffe, the Woodwork teacher. He could be a real cross-patch.
January 17th: Did 2 pages of project. (Geography Project)
January 18th: School. Practice. Went to Robbo’s. Alan Robinson now lives in south Africa somwhere. He wrote to me once, just after Friends Reunited started charging for replies – which I wouldn’t pay. Shame.
January 19th: Have to go to St. Augustine’s for training. This was Rugby League training – I played with the Town boys.
January 20th: Had a bath. Went out with Michael (Blackburn). saw Holly (Paul Holberry) in town.
January 21st: Played Rawthorpe – Lost 37-0. Town played Charlton and won 2-1. Hellwell’s first.

A sad week then – losing 37-0 to Rawthorpe. Up until this year, my school – Deighton, had won everything in local rugby. Only St. Augustine’s itself ever matched us at rugby. By 1966/67 however, the older boys, the big lads (some of whom would play – briefly – professionally) had left to start apprenticeships here and there. The school ‘age’ year then, began in January, so many had already had their fifteenth birthday before the 66/67 year started. With my own birthday being in December – I was one of the youngest. Our team this year was made up of some younger 5th years (me) and some older 4th years.

January 22nd: Didn’t go to church. Went to Mam’s. Grandma came. Mam was my mum’s mum – we always called her ‘mam’ Grandma was Dad’ mum.
January 23rd: School. Perrin used me as an experiment. Wilkinson’s a fool and I’ve done bombheads homework. Don’t remember bomb head! Other two are teachers
January 24th: Perrin kept me in for trailing elastic around the school. Went to Mrs. Stocks. The elstic in question was that found inside a golf ball!! We trailled it all around the school – inside and out. Great fun.
January 25th: Didn’t do games (no kit). did 3 pages of project on Ukraine. To finish Canadian Prairies.
January 26th: Went to St. Augustine’s – practiced new rule
January 27th: Easy day at school. Went to town with Michael (Blackburn) and Pete (can’t remember – lived across road from me)
Janaury 28th: 3rd Round cup v Chelsea. Lost 1-2. I went to Town ground. Ref. on their side. ‘??’ played a blinder.

I’ll continue the last days of this month on the Feburay page.

I cleared the garage out yesterday and found a bag of my old diaries. I’ve always know I still had them but it didn’t occur to me that they might make interesting reading. The oldest (I think) was from 1967 and I would have become 16 that year. Betony, my stepdaughter is 16 now – but as my dairy (obviously) starts in January, we’re probably looking at similar times in our lives – she leaves school this summer – I left in 1967.

My idea is that (hopefully and eventually) I will go through all the diaries over time and begin to write them up here. As time passes it may be that they are commented on and stories/notes etc are expanded upon, but for now it is just a simple what I did, when I did it and what I put into my diary!

We been warned about the driving in Turkey but in the dark, it seemed far worse than we’d expected. At one point we were trundling along at about 60mph when a car came up to the crossroads we were approaching (we were on the main arterial road) and just kept on going – straight across without braking or slowing down. By the time we got to our destination (Overcik - inbetween Fethiye and Oludeniz) we were tired and ready for bed (after a bit of food we’d picked up en route).

When the morning came we had a better view of our surroundings – which was beautiful. The top image shows the view from the back of the villa (my daughter’s family own it) – looking up towards what a taxi driver later told us was ‘mother mountain’. The image alongside gives the best daylight impression we snapped of the rear view (although the garden shownis the neighbour’s). Everyday, during the week an old woman would come along the back there, by the fence – with her goats. She would hang around long enough for them to feed off the trees and bushes and would then throw stones at them to move on!

More next time

I’m closing this for now, to see how it looks and will continue later with a separate post.

David