Thursday 7 July 2011

It was the giblets that did it :o)

There's no doubt about it, I will have plenty of reading matter in my later years when I am tucked away in my little en suite bedroom in some stately care home in the country. I have a pile of diaries dating back to 1963, that should keep me going for a while. By then my memory will be failing rapidly and when I read them I will be wondering who the heck is this person, ha ha.

They are a constant source of amusement for me when I browse through them. Take this one from 1966, it makes me chuckle. For a good part of this year I worked in the sausage department at Roberts and Birch, a meat factory. I think it was about this time when I seriously started thinking about giving up meat, I just couldn't stomach it, especially on a Sunday night when they brought the live pigs in and slaughtered them. We lived close by and the sound of the squeeling porkers as they were being unloaded was horrible.

The 16th of May was my 17th birthday. This is the entry.
Had 10/- from Dunstall. 5/- and a box of chocs from Bob, 5/- from mum, bottle of scent from Janet, two pairs of nylons from Anna and Steve, hairspray and maltesers from Sheila. Everyone in the sausage room sang Happy Birthday to me, I felt such a nit. I had 8 cards, put 15/- in the bank, and sent off for a Stork lipstick.

I bet you are wondering what a Stork lipstick was. There were vouchers to collect from the Stork margarine wrappers, send them off and get a free lipstick. So you see my penny pinching started when I was 17. I was also carefull with my spending, putting a little away for big purchases, rather than getting credit.

I worked on a sausage packing conveyor belt on piece work, the more I packed the more I got paid. Entry for Monday 23rd. Was on bonus till 4.30. Did 634. Sheila didn't like it because I did more than her. I must beat Sheila all this week.

Competitive little beggar wasn't I? Every day I wrote down how many packs of sausages I had done, and how much I earnt. On Friday 10th I got £6-4-7 wages, that's 6 pounds, 4 shillings, and 7 pennies, in old money, ha ha. Included in that was £1-7sh bonus. That looks like a pathetic wage, but it was considered quite good to work in a factory when you could earn more by working faster.

I was a factory girl. I used to go to work in the morning with rollers in my hair because I was going out that night. Imagine spending all day with your hair wound tightly round prickly plastic rollers. We had to wear white nylon shower type caps, very fetching I think not, at least we all looked as daft as each other. I note that on the 15th of June I went to work wearing false eyelashes, well at least I made an effort ha ha.

So what did I do at the weekends? Saturday 9th July. Went in town this afternoon with mum. Rag Parade was on. Saw Ted Moult and Chris Barber and his Jazzmen. I bought myself a red suspender belt, pair of patterned nylons, pot of glue, 3d notebook, (that's 3pennies) and 2 films for my camera. Went to the Station and bought my ticket for Blackpool £2-8sh. Still got £3 left. So I was keeping track of my spending, even writing it down in my diary. Some things never change.

My sausage making job came to a halt in October. Entry for the 19th. I got sent in the cookhouse this morning. The giblets made me feel sick. I ran out crying. Had to go and see Atkins in his office, he said I was on the redundant list, I had to settle down on a job or I would be out. 20th October. Jean came out of the cookhouse this morning crying. Atkins had us both in his office and gave us a weeks notice. We went back to work till 9am then walked out and went to Wesleys. Got a job on sewing machines. Went back to work at 2pm and got suspended till monday because we never asked to leave the premises.

We could do that then, walk out of one job and into another. I did it frequently, moved from job to job, but that was the only time I ever got the sack. It was the giblets that did it, ha ha.

It was at this time that I discovered Blackpool. My friend and her family had moved there and I went to visit for a holiday. That was the start of my journey towards independance. It was also the time when I discovered lads, and boy was I lad mad. I wasn't very nice to them either. Jeans boyfriend fixed me up with a blind date, he was called Phil. On the 22nd of November I had been going out with him for four weeks. The entry says, Went to his house tonight, was in front room. I have got two love bites on my neck. He told me he loves me. We were lying on the sofa a bit. I love Phil. I was little miss innocence, my mum told me to keep my hand on my halfpenny and I did, ha ha.

Then it seems we had a bit of a tiff, because on the 27th I wrote, Went to the flicks this afternoon with Phil. I chucked him. That was a bit harsh, for what I can make out, I went off him because he couldn't dance very well. Then it was all change again, the entry for the 29th, Phil came tonight, I made it up with him. We went a walk across the Trent Bridge. I don't love him, I just like him, and he is someone to go out with. He's ok I suppose. Anyway he got his own back, he finished with me on the 3rd of December. It wasn't long though before I was off fancying someone else. I was a terrible flirt. This is one trait that has changed over the years though, now I can't be bothered, ha ha.

I bought a bike in the July, it was a blue one and cost £8 from the second hand shop, I noted that it was fabulous. This gave me a lot more freedom, I went all over the place on it for miles. There are also several mentions of colouring my hair, I remember one incident very well when it went wrong, it ended up blue. I was a laughing stock, it's a wonder my hair didn't fall out with all the peroxide on it.

Little Miss Independant also washed all her own clothes. On Sunday the 24th of July, I washed stacks of clothes and they all dried. I didn't trust my mum to do it properly. I also painted the inside of my bedroom door, my desk top, the chair seat, and a tea chest. Yes, the tea chest was a makeshift table with a piece of hardboard on the top of it. I also wallpapered my bedroom walls with newspaper because we couldn't afford proper wallpaper. I was proud of my whacky room.

Funny that a lot of what I did at seventeen, has moulded me into the person I am today. I am glad I can look back and laugh at myself, I was a bit of a crazy dude.

17 comments:

  1. It was interesting reading your thoughts at 17! I used to keep a diary intermittently but was never very good about writing so much about all the events of the day or doing it consistently. I finally burnt all the diaries as I didn't want any one reading all my angst during my formative years, lol. Sometimes I wish I'd kept a better record of some things so I could form the basis of a book (but would anyone want to read it, lol).

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  2. I like teenaged girls a lot, having had 4 of my own, and you sound like you were a really interesting kid to have around :O)

    Rattlebox

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  3. I'm glad I destroyed my teenage diaries (don't mean the diaries were in their teens!). Even when I read them a few weeks after writing them , I sounded naive....daft actually.
    Jane x

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  4. I did enjoy this. I have kept a diary all my adult life. it is quite cringe making in places, especially my romantic ramblings :-O

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  5. I enjoyed reading it too. I never kept a diary after my Mum found it - and didn't like what she read!!!! Never again.

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  6. Loved reading this post, Ilona, I found it really interesting. Wish I'd been someone who kept diaries when I was younger but I only wrote in one for one year - 1976 - and, if I remember correctly, gave that up after a few weeks.

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  7. This is a brilliant post, I really enjoyed reading it, it made me smile alot. I got a diary for Xmas every year and if I didn't I brought one out of my pocket money. I never ever managed to keep it up though. What a shame, I would have loved to have read them now. Can we have some more snippets from your diaries please..brilliant.

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  8. Like Sharon ^ I got a diary for Christmas every year but never got any further than about March!

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  9. Thanks for this! The type of blog I write (i.e. selling-focussed) doesn't lend itself to sharing this type of thing, but I'd be too chicken to anyway. I suppose I'm not old enough to laugh at myself yet but you certainly inspire me to try :)

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  10. LOL I like teenage Ilona!
    My naughty little sister kept a diary. She also liked a puff on a ciggy every now and then which angered my mum enormously.
    One day I thought I would check on her to see if she really was being truthful about the smoke smell being only on her clothes because friends smoked(she was around 14 at the time) so I read some of her diary(I know ,it was not a nice thing to do) anyway,there was the evidence written in her own hand,something like,'went to A's with C and J,we bought cigs and smoked and talked till it got dark' .I was so triumphant and couldn't resist pencilling AHA! .
    LOL She was not happy when she saw it. We were both in the dog house then,me for reading her diary and her for fibbing about smoking to Mum.
    I don't have any diaries,too much incriminating evidence .

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  11. Loved this post♥ My first diary was in 1967:) xxx

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  12. Your mother was probably so hurt that you did not trust her to care for your clothing...lol.Did you have siblings?

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  13. Hi PP. My mother was pleased that she didn't have to do my washing, she had enough to do. I had a brother and a sister, she did theirs, and she also went to work. We had an old fashioned 'beat your clothes to death' washing machine. We lived in a house with no running hot water and I did all my washing in the sink, heating water in pans on the top of the gas stove. She didn't mind at all.

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  14. I truly enjoyed this entry from your old diaries. I once tried keeping a diary until I discovered my Mom "snooped" it. That was the end of it for me. I'm older than you and I have lots of wonderful memories even if they aren't written anywhere.

    Darla

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  15. I really enjoyed the glimpse into the seventeen year old Ilona's life. It evoked memories of my first job and the things that were important then. (Boys, make up, boys, clothes, 17 Magazine, boys.) I also tried keeping a journal several times during my life, but my Mom & siblings couldn't leave it alone. The few pages that have survived always make me cringe now...like the one I kept in fifth grade where I tell all about how I'm really a secret agent. (I might have wrote that for my audience. LOL!)
    Cat

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  16. Thanks very much for sharing your diary entries, it was very interesting to read. I kept a diary on and off when I was young. I think they are still out at my mam and dads in a box somewhere. I'd probably cringe reading them back too, I was very rebellious and got up to all sorts of mischief. ;-) Christy x

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  17. That was an absolute delight to read - such insights into the past are rare indeed. Our ordinary lives really are so very interesting. Would love to read more if you share again.

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