Open Writing

I have recently found a diary I kept in 1939. It’s hard to realise today that it was written so long ago when I was eleven years old.

I was born in Tonge Park Avenue, in Tongue Moor, Bolton, in March, 1928. My mother used to tell me that the wind was howling and whistling down the chimney on that night. None of the National Health care and concern, like ante and post-natal clinics and maternity units and benefits, given to today’s parents was available then.

The entries in my diary are filled in religiously for each day from January 1st until August 4th, and then just a few entries until the end of August. All are written in pencil, of course, no ballpoints in those days.

Life seemed to revolve around events in primary school and comments on the weather. A lot of winter days involved shifting heavy snowfalls from our back yard and the front path of our house. Heat waves are recorded in early April and in June. Saturday mornings were spent doing errands to the local Co-op shop for a neighbour with a young family. My reward for this was 6d.

Spare time was spent playing out with friends either in the back street, the lean-to shed or the park in front of our house. Did you have a homemade tent made from a sheet or blanket, spread over an upturned wooden clothes maiden, or did you sit in a large cardboard box pretending it was a boat? I wonder if today’s children use their imagination, or are they influenced too much by television, videos or computer games?

What freedom we enjoyed, sadly not encouraged by parents of today’s children. Now I live near Leverhulme Park, and I don’t see young children enjoying a game of cricket or football or having a picnic on the grass as my own children did when they were growing up. It seems today football matches are only played with adult supervision by teachers of coaches or under floodlights in enclosed pitches until late in the evening, Premier Five-a-Side.

One interesting entry in my diary tells of the arrival of a new car for my uncle, described as a “Flying Standard Eight deluxe”, blue with a sunshine roof and electric light. Very posh in 1939. We were taken out for a run in the car to Blackpool, Fleetwood, Morecambe and Southport during that summer.

Another entry records the School Annual Sports Day in July when we returned to school after three weeks holiday. In those days all the nearby towns enjoyed a welcome break from work, known as ‘Wakes Weeks’. The views from Scout Road and other high vantage points overlooking the town and out towards the coast were superb when the smoke from mills and factories was nonexistent. Thank heaven for today’s smokeless zones, although we do suffer from pollution due to the increase of traffic on our roads.

Going back to Sports Day, another girl and myself were given the job of treacling the buns, so I would be too busy to compete in the races.

Talking of races, Holcombe Hunt Horse Races in April get a mention in the diary, also half holiday in June because Lord Derby came to Bolton to open the Civic Centre.

Empire Day on the 24th of May was celebrated by the waving of flags and singing. The top class sang ‘O Land of My Fathers’ and we came home at 3.30 instead of the usual 4.15.

I wonder ¾ if I mention some of the films I was taken to see, will it awaken memories for you?

There was ‘Sixty Glorious Years’ starring Anna Neagle and Anton Wallbrook at the Odeon Cinema. Anna Neagle visited the Odeon, but I didn’t see her. Then ‘Little Miss Broadway’ starring Shirley Temple at the Crompton Way Cinema. Also ‘The Citadel’, when I went to the second house, to mention but a few.

There was also Madge Watson’s ‘Dancing Display’ at the Derby Hall. The diary comment was “Oh, but it was heavenly and so good!” My sister went to a dance for Taylor’s pupils and danced with C. B. Holmes’s Joy Boys at the Victoria Hall. Does anyone remember?

We listened to the wireless in the evenings. Programmes I remember were ‘Monday Night at Seven’ and ‘Band Wagon’. The comment this time was, “Good but not so nice without Stinker (Richard) Murdoch”.

There were numerous practices for being a ‘Little Singer’ at the Methodist Church Sermons in May. New shoes were bought and socks and hat, and no doubt there would be a white dress.

Also visits to Grandma’s house. I remember the horsehair sofa, which pricked the back of your bare legs because of wearing a short cotton dress. I was probably told to sit still and not fidget.

The primary school examination or ‘Scholarship’ (the forerunner of the eleven plus) results were made known in June, but I did not pass so went to Castle Hill Secondary School in September. On August 25th my entry states that I was very sad to be leaving my primary school. In the morning we gave our class teacher, Miss Twisse, a lemon reading lamp which a few of us had bought for seven shillings and sixpence.

It is also noted that on the same day, August 25th, we took our gas masks to school.

There must have been some preparations during the summer months because of the threat of war with Germany because my father gave up his job as an insurance agent for the Scottish Legal Assurance company. In May he started work at the De Havilland Aircraft Factory at Lostock in Bolton, where propellers and components were made.

The last entry in my diary is on August 27th. Strangely, there is no mention of the outbreak of the Second World War on September 3rd. Maybe I was too busy with blackout restrictions, air raid shelters and the start of rationing? Also a new lifestyle was shortly to begin at Castle Hill School, and no doubt I was given homework to do in the evenings and weekends.

I have certainly had a good walk down Memory Lane remembering events and people I rarely think about.