I've finally started doing something I've been meaning to do for months, which is putting all my old notebooks in order and numbering them. I've always had a notebook on the go and I've accumulated over thirty of them, dating back to early 1977, when I was fourteen.
These are just cheap books full of random notes, not diaries, although some of them contain diary-like accounts of holidays and other experiences. There are two from when I was a teenager and then, sadly, there's a gap of about ten years (although I also have diaries which do fill in some of those years).
So I've only got a little way in to the numbering exercise, but the first notebook is full of things that fascinate me. I can remember writing them and living the experiences they refer to, but at the same time they seem to reveal a strange, obsessively organised creature that I don't fully recognise as myself.
This is my record of the charts for the week ending 30 January 1977. The tracks with the asterisks are the ones I recorded off the radio onto a C46 cassette. David Soul was my idol and gets red pen. Actually it's only the top 19, I see.
It's funny because it wouldn't be long before I was obsessed with the Tom Robinson Band and Stiff Little Fingers and the Fall and wearing a railwayman's donkey jacket and collarless white shirts all the time. But here's a couple of pages from a five-page record of my wardrobe at the time:
The key at the end explains that a heart symbol means 'best in section', a coloured dot indicates items that make up an outfit and a cross means 'on loan from Mum' (the shame!). This was the era of tunics worn over polo-necks and this was virtually all I wore at the time. I like that I've included the fabrics of some of these clothes -- I remember adoring the feel of towelling tops, which regrettably I didn't keep just for the beach. Courtelle and cheesecloth are also very redolent of this period for me.
The eggs are designs for decorated blown eggshells, which was something I was really into at that time. There are 38 egg designs in total in this book.
This is me wearing the 'sailor motif t-shirt' mentioned in the clothes list. I'm pretending to drink beer on holiday in Corfu with my mum.
The notebook reveals my appalling diet at the time. And also my great enjoyment of this bad food. Above is my lovingly prepared list of what I was going to take on a school trip to Cambridge -- about a 200-mile journey, but, still, FOUR pork baps! It would not have done to forget the crucial implement for eating the creme caramel.
Here's a little shopping list for goodies. Mmm, lamb n'mint sauce flavour crisps. Not quite as good as tomato ketchup flavour, but not half bad. I must have gone into a daydream over the crisps as I haven't filled in the final item.
Finally, here is the most damning evidence of my piggy lifestyle and lack of fashion flair: a page dedicated to preparations for a special school meal:
We were having this meal in the evening, but nonetheless I planned to have a 'light tea' at 6pm. And I don't suppose the grey tights with blue sandals won me many admirers. Blue mascara. blue eyeshadow, lip gloss, blusher -- so funny! I haven't worn make-up for years now.
