Diary. 2nd August, 1971. 59 Exeter Road, Peterborough.
10pm Today has been very much like any other holiday. 1st day on holiday after 3 weeks of pseudo hell at “Freemans” – mail order factory extraordinaire.
I, in case you don’t know, am [–] , 19 year old student, wasted a year on a BA course at North East London Polytechnic and now awaiting the beginning, in September, of a course in journalism at Darlington College of Technology.
London can be good. It can be terribly depressing. It epitomizes life in general today. One vast blind, continuous rush, dirt, noise.
[Note from 2011: Part of a page and 2 pages torn out years ago – oh dear, must have been bad!. The one-paragraph entry below must have been dated 7th August or after]
News: (i) bad situation in Northern Ireland (ii) “Oz” editors freed on bail, minus long hair [Note from 2011: That was after the longest conspiracy trial in English history, at that time at least. The editors were Felix Dennis and Richard Neville]. (iii) Still there is starving and war (iv) Moon astronauts home [note from 2011: Apollo 15 mission. Launched 26 July 1971 Landed on Moon 30 July 1971. Hadley Rille. Returned to Earth 7 August 1971] (v) Today it has been raining, though it is still bloody warm and humid.
[Undated 1971 entry from torn out page, but must have been 7th August or after]…Went to see “Zeppelin” – a fiction story of World War One and a L.Z.36 . Very good suspense story. [ From 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLNkHAm4uNk ]
I think the best film I’ve seen remains “Dr Zhivago” [from 2011: but I had seen few films up to that time]. I forget who wrote the book, though I should know ‘cos he was and still is a most influential writer in the Soviet Union. They have some brilliant writers, they really ought to allow them to write what they wish. The iron puppet leaders are scared!
I recently read a book of assorted Russian short stories and poems – very good. Also I read a book of short stories by a bloke who name was, I think, Yury Kazakov, called “The Smell of Bread and Other Stories”.
[From 2011: Indeed it was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yury_Kazakov (August 8, 1927–November 29, 1982) ]
On Monday I finally sent off Chuck’s birthday present, an antique, about 1840, tobacco jar. [from 2011: Chuck was Chuck Harrison, an American “pen friend”.] Sent by airmail, costing £3.75, but as I had saved a lot of stamps while working at Freemans, I used those and didn’t spend a penny. [Note from 2011: I tore unfranked stamps from returned items]
Stephen is attempting to fix an old, 1952, Austin Devon, A40, car. It’s almost as old as me! It’s a drag that my car is being returned, [but not] if we can get my money back on it. I’ll also have to tell you sometime about a week I spent with friends in S E Wales, in the Wye Valley, earlier in the summer, a few weeks ago. Meanwhile time is moving and anything else I would say would be boring. Cheers! I’ll stop and just add that this little writing has cheered me up a bit. I hope I have a good time with [xyz1] tonight. I didn’t sleep well last night, but at least (!) my headache has now gone.
[Note from 2011: it would be 20 years before I wrote of the Wye Valley/Offa’s dyke/Black Mountains visionary expedition. See:
Diary Of A Younger Man 