Ichabod's Day

Through most of my life I have considered myself to be a rather private person. I overcame a level of shyness as a young teenager which still occasionally surfaces today in certain circumstances. I wonder why then that I have recently taken to exposing more and more of my life to the world? My diary extracts and recently my professional portfolio are all in arenas that invite public scrutiny and comment. A month or so ago my Dad gave me a suitcase that belonged to my Mum in which she had ferreted away momentoes and souvenirs that were important to her during her lifetime. I knew of its existance but was never allowed to look through the things - Mum always saying "you can look when I've gone". Inside were a treasure trove of letters, cards and a couple of dairies covering the year she met my Dad and the year they got engaged. I hadn't realised she had kept diairies, and it is this discovery that sent me to dig out my own (which I have begun to share here). On readin...

The latest Diary excerpt - again names have been changed to protect the innocent: Friday November 2nd 1979 Back again, have been too busy to write before. Saturday night me and SJ went down the Beehive. Terry phoned up and I told him I couldn't go out coz SJ was here but said we might go down to the Beehive. When we got there him and Matt were there. At first they didn't speak. Then Terry came over and Matt joined us a bit later. They didn't have anything to say so me and SJ went down the chinese and Jimmy asked SJ out - but she said no, ahhh! Sunday morning SJ went home coz she felt ill. But before she went Brian and Steve came up to see if she'd sing in their new group she said she'd think about it. Me and Robin ( brother ) went to Auntie's for dinner and we had to walk there and back coz the buses didn't come! Mum and Dad were quite late home. They brought me a sweatshirt, a keyring and some slides. Was off school again Tuesday and Wednesday then T...

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Well, you've asked for it, I shall look towards publishing a few entries from my diaries of 1979-80 when I was in sixth form at school and working at Boots as a Saturday Girl. Jackie commented on my previous post and has really got me thinking, "This is the process that has made me really think about how I presented to the world then, how I present now, similarities and differences between me and my younger self, and how we consciously and unconsciously distort 'truths' when they are uncomfortable. There is something about putting them in the public arena which gives the process more impact than just re-reading old diaries. Keep on showing your diaries, for our pleasure, and for your own enlightenment!"   I agree that just reading them has begun to change my "truths" and I have begun to think about how me now and me then communicate. By the way - I have changed names to protect the innocent - but you know who you are!!!! I have selected a 3 day perio...

OK, so those of you who know me on Facebook will know that I have recently found some of my old diaries and have taken great delight in reading them! OMG!!! I am now  being encouraged to publish some of them in the interests of posterity. Hmmm, I think a bit more editing is necessary before I expose the innocent. Here is an extract to be going on with... "Memo on 1978 I think I like this year best of all. I've been out to a lot of places and met no end of nice boys. I shall miss 1978 really and I hope that 1979 will be as much or even more fun." I was 16 in 1978, this is the first diary of the series that covers my 16/17th years. I realise now that I was obsessed with boys, I was very fickle with my affections, I spent much too much time in pubs and ate an inordinate amount of chinese takeways!!! The following is a very tame entry - just to ease you into it gradually (reading this I realise very little hs changed - given every opportunity to lounge about and I tak...