Wednesday, 27th October 1976
(Winder House, Sedbergh to Gosforth. Age 15)
I was up at 6:30 and out of bed at 7:00. I spent the half-hour reading.
I went downstairs for a bath, but there was no hot water. This kept happening. I went back to bed.
Then there was fire practice. I had never known us have a fire practice once before at Sedbergh! At Mowden, we had a fire drill each term. We had to rush breakfast, which was at 7:15.
We were going home for half-term.
The private coach-hire from Sedbergh to Gosforth was a 44-seater coach. I guess it only took around twenty of us ? For a short half-term holiday, I only needed a hold-all. Our school trunks and tuck boxes stayed at school until the end of term.
The bus left late. We got home (Gosforth) before lunch.
There was no one to meet us. There was no need. The coach ended its journey in Melton Park, on the other side of the Great North Road from Fencer Hill Park, where we lived.
I said hello to my sister and wished her a happy thirteenth birthday. She went out with friends for her birthday, to see a film in town. I doubt it was The Omen or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – not at age 13. Not even I could get into those, cert: X. Nor did I want to!
I rang Julie-Anne and cycled round to see her place at 2:00.
She would have expected to see me. We had been corresponding while I was away at Sedbergh, and only a couple of days earlier she had sent me a letter with a Glacier Mint enclosed.
It rained, so we listened to records.
We were in the sitting room, chatting all afternoon and evening, listening to David Soul and Rod Stewart. We were snuggled up together in the corner.
Julie-Anne and I could spend hours like this. I had been away at school for weeks, writing letters and looking forward to seeing her again. Here I was, back in Gosforth, spending the afternoon and evening with her.
I wanted to take her to see Logan’s Run – the futuristic sci-fi adventure starring Michael York and Jenny Agutter. I could then imagine running off with her; they I rather think, unlike me, she was quite content where she was!
I never recall eating with her family, but there I was for eight hours. Surely we must have eaten something?
Chris, Julie-Anne’s sister’s boyfriend, turned up. He was perhaps three or four years older than me. They were a much more grown-up couple, going out for the evening. He’d suggested The Omen; she’d wanted Logan’s Run.
Julie-Anne and I stayed in, listening to records and talking. She didn’t fancy being in the same cinema with her sister and seeing what they got up to on the back row.
I went home at 10:00, cycling back to Fencer Hill Park.
Eight hours with Julie-Anne on my first day home from Sedbergh. Making up for lost time?
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