Five-year Diary: Saw the new year in. Had a bath. Spent all afternoon writing and rewriting an essay for the Observer Competition. Went to Gran’s. Had lovely meat. Wanted to go home to type. Snowed hard. Got sweets. Played cards. Built a card castle. And watched TV. Went to bed. Anxious for Mum to fix the cost and trousers for the date with Jane. (Whenever the phone rings, I touch wood that it is my girlfriend).
The Day Revisited :
I saw the New Year in in the playroom, on the sofa, which we jumped off at midnight in order to “jump into the new year.” It felt playful rather than ceremonial, a physical act to mark the moment. Later I wallowed in the bath, which was a home luxury to relish because once back at boarding school all bathing was communal: six tubs in the same tiled block and a row of showers. At home the bath meant lots of bubbles, Fairy Liquid with a dollop of Badedas, floating until I was cold or bored. It was private in a way the rest of the house wasn’t, and indulgent.
Being the first to spot the heavy feathers of snow dripping from the sky was magical. Noticing it mattered. Checking if it settled mattered even more. Would it lie? How deep would it be by morning? Would sledging follow?
I spent the afternoon writing and rewriting my Observer essay. I worked either at my Habitat desk at the end of my bed or on the playroom table. I typed straight onto the paper with no plan or handwritten notes, which wasn’t the best approach, but there was no one to tell me otherwise. I still have a folder full of first drafts and multiple rewrites. Mum read drafts and made suggestions. Her spelling and English weren’t great, but she was well-read and would recommend Somerset Maugham’s short stories, Daphne du Maurier, and Scott Fitzgerald. The idea of a typewriter had come from somewhere. I had tried writing short stories and poetry at school and kept a notebook of words, though my spelling and grammar were poor.
We went to Gran’s, my paternal grandmother, at her bungalow in Melton Park. Our visits followed a routine, especially this post-Christmas meal: turkey or beef with all the trimmings. We stayed indoors the whole time, looking at her collection of knick-knacks in a display case, playing a couple of musical boxes, and having a go on the spinning wheel. She smoked Benson & Hedges, collected Green Shield Stamps, and had a Yorkshire terrier called Scamp. The detail that survives is the food, the “lovely meat,” perhaps because it was plentiful and reassuring.
There were sweets. We played cards—something to do—and built a card castle. It wasn’t competitive, just quietly absorbing. Later the television was on. I remember the Radio Times for the first week of January 1976 more than the programmes themselves: the promise of films and shows, the glow, the sense of evening settling.
By all accounts this was my first ever date with a girl. I wanted everything to be right. Clothes needed adjusting. The trousers were possibly too long or needed taking in; the coat sleeves were too short. At fourteen and three months I was growing fast. I was anxious for Mum to fix the cost and the trousers. Whenever the phone rang, I touched wood, hoping it was Jane.
The day feels hopeful and anticipatory, like the start of a new chapter about to unfold.
I may have watched :
Morning / Daytime (BBC1)
At 9:20am Trumpton — the stop-motion stop that was a staple for younger viewers.
9:35am Scooby Doo — classic cartoon capers.
11:00am Star Trek — science-fiction adventure that would have been a total contrast to the snowy afternoon.
2:45pm The Court Jester (1955) — a film with Danny Kaye and classic satire/improbable sword fights.
Late Afternoon / Early Evening
4:25pm Deputy Dawg — cartoon.
4:30pm Jackanory — children’s story reading.
4:45pm Blue Peter — magazine/arts & crafts/animals, a big favourite for kids.
5:15pm Charlie Brown — Peanuts cartoons.
5:40pm Magic Roundabout — another familiar animated treat.
Evening / Night (BBC1)
7:50pm The Ken Dodd New Year’s Eve Special — comedy with one of Britain’s great stand-ups.
Later on 10:30pm there’s Max Bygraves Says “I Wanna Tell You a Story” and at 11:45pm For Auld Lang
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