Mossley Primary School Primary school diary/workbook, dating from 1971, when I’d have been about six.
Christmas
TEXT READS:
at christmas we decorat ore christmas tree. santa gives us toys and sweets we call the toys presents. there are funny cartoons. santa rides a reindeer sleigh. at christmas it is a surprise when we weak at morning to see a pile of toys. santa gos down the chimny. that is how he gives us ore toys
Christmas 02
TEXT READS:
santa claus brought me a rupert book and a beezer book and choklate monny and a coler book with join the dots and colered penciles and a phelt tip pen and a monny box and a police car and a dockter set puzzle and chocklate herbs and toffes and brick for making trucks and metal mecano set and my brother got a guitar and a coler book and colered penciles and chocklate monny and toffes and chocklate herbs and a plastic mecano set and sticks to build with and a horse [carryer ?] and a puzzle and a bimbo book and beano book and a pencile case and so did I. I wook up at christmas and I rememberd it was christmas and I got out of bed and went over to my pilow case and felt it and it was fat so I looked in the I told my brother santa left us toys so we went to mammys room and opened ore parcels
NOTES:
- "chocklate herbs" –Refers to the childrens' programme of the same name.
- "bimbo book" –No idea what this was. Presumably some TV or cartoon character of the time. I think at three, my bro was probably still a bit too young to be getting porn from Santa!
This diary extract is quite insightful really. As I looked through the piles of old school books and diaries that my mammy had kept from when I was a kid, I found that, from an early age, I have had a strange compulsion/fixation/whatever with making sure I recorded every single detail of an event or happening; from listing every Christmas present my brother and I got here, through to noting down the seat numbers we occupied on coaches, trains, or in cinemas in other diaries later on.
I suppose nowadays I’d probably be diagnosed as having had some kind of borderline OCD or something. Actually, I’ve thinking of it and referring to it as being a "past tense" thing but then, I suppose the fact that I’m digitising all this old crap and archiving it now shows that the same compunction to catalogue things is still there.Help –I’m a mentalist!
Don Dorian
TEXT READS:
once apon a time there was a bus called dorian one day don wanted to get rid of dorian so he went near a low bridge and got brock
Bomb
TEXT READS:
There is a fire. a policeman and a soldier are guarding two signs. one says Bomb and the other stop. the fire is in a car show-rooma. the police car is on fire. there are five fire engines
NOTES:
Now, if this was drawn today and I was an Iraqi or Libyan kid, well-meaning bearded types would be analysing this picture and using it as evidence of how "war" had traumatised me for life. This was obviously something I’d seen in or around Belfast at the time, which I’d drawn and written about.
Was I traumatised for life by the experience? –Hmmm… probably like most kids, I just found the whole thing really exciting.Note also the first recorded evidence of me being told off for not using capital letters!
Mice
TEXT READS:
some people are scared of mise. som time mise get caught in mouse-traps but some get the cheese with out getting traped
Aeroplanes
TEXT READS:
aeroplanes have engines but some have propellors the driver is called a pilot airoplanes with engines are called jets
The Fisherman
TEXT READS:
The fisherman
fisher men catch fish some caetch sharks on TV I saw a dead wale it eat a beach ball and it stuck in its throat
Caterpillars
TEXT READS:
caterpillar eat plant and weeds plants have leaves
NOTES:
What more do you need to know? Eat your heart out, David Attenborough!
Noah’s Ark
TEXT READS:
noahs ark
noah let the dove go when the dove came back it had a stick in its beak. that meant there was a dry place because there was a storm but when he let the dove go it never came back.
NOTES:
So did the dove come back or not?
Apollo 16
TEXT READS:
Thursday 27th April
The moon
Apollo 16
apollo 16 is going to splash down today The astronauts found stones and rocks all the astronauts are Amierican they are coming to land today they land in the sea and then they swim up to the top of it
NOTES:
Along with things blowing up and Concorde, space rockets and moon missions were one of the things that fascinated me at that age. Presumably because, back in those days, a space mission was still a novel enough event to merit wall-to-wall coverage on the TV.
Creatures under the sea
TEXT READS:
creatures under the sea
Wednesday 3rd May
crabs live in the sea as well as sharks and fish there are animals with fishing rods to catch fish
NOTES:
I’m pretty sure that "animals with fishing rods to catch fish" is my attempt at describing the 'angler fish'.For a boy with a such a strange compulsion to list and/or count things, I’ve made a bit of a schoolboy error by giving my octopus nine tentacles!
My Gonk
TEXT READS:
Wednesday 10th may
my gonckmy gonk look tar-tan because it is all different coulers I painted my gonks hair green. Scotish gonks are beter than Irish gonks. my gonk is Scotish that is why it is tartan my daddy is scotish too and so am I
NOTES:
I love this one! Dating back to that age when all young lads hero worship their dads. My dad was Scottish, so naturally I was determined that I was going to be Scottish too, instead of Irish.
A "Gonk" by the way –for those dirty-minded individuals amongst you, who may be wondering what a five-year old boy was doing, writing about his genitals in school– was a creature made from a toilet-roll holder and whatever other crap the education budgets of the day allowed the schools to buy in as art equipment.
Funfair
TEXT READS:
The fair has roundabouts and sometimes there are games once I was on the dogems when we went home I was sick because the dogem cars went so fast
NOTES:
This tragic tale perhaps reveals why I’ve always opted for slow, lumbering vans and 4x4s as an adult, instead of boy-racers.
Sports Day
TEXT READS:
Sports
one day we went to sports I came third I cant remember what kind of race it was I went whith the p1s and p2s
NOTES:
Even at that early age, I was showing a keen apathy towards the world of athleticsP1s and P2s –refers to the designations we used in those days for the classes in Primary School; You started at five years old in P1 and then so on through to P7 at age eleven.
Concorde
TEXT READS:
my daddy gos to london every year. he brings us toys every time he gos. he bought me a toy CONCORD this year and he bought my brother a dougal car. the year before that he bought me a big box full of matchbox cars. and he bou my brother a toy duck.the picture is on the other page
NOTES:
At the time, this would have been the "best present evarrr!", as I was totally obsessed with Concorde. Presumably why it merited ALL-CAPS in my description.I like the way I made a point of referring the teacher to the other page to see the pic. This one was obviously so important, I wasnae going to take any chance that she might miss it!Dougal car –As in "Dougal" off the "Magic Roundabout" TV programme.
Valedictory
TEXT READS:
I am going t p4 after the holidays and I will be doing wood worck I will make a cabnet for my mammy
NOTES:
Poor me. Getting the wrong end of the stick, as usual. I thought when I went up to P4, I’d be a grown-up and learn how to make cabinets in woodwork lessons. The teacher has corrected it to "hand work", which was presumably a slightly less ambitious construction session for eight year olds.
By rights, having been in P1 in 1970, I should have been looking forward to going into P3 in 1972 but, for some reason to do with when my birthday fell, I was put straight into P3 [here] from P1. So went from being the biggest and oldest in the class to being the smallest and youngest in one fell swoop.
Nice one teachers –like that’s not going to damage anyone’s self-confidence, at al!
