"Harry and I were feeling rather the worse for wear so we stayed in."
Mum's 1962 diary + why her nickname was "Glam"
After my dad died in 2010, my sister was clearing out his house – the house we grew up in – and found a small suitcase in the loft.
The case was full of stuff that Mum, who died in 1999, had saved, but had never mentioned. Letters, cards, postcards, photos, programmes from shows, even things like dry cleaning receipts from when she lived in America in the early sixties.
I’m going to write about it all.
Hello! Firstly, at the end of last year, I posted one of Mum’s letters on my other Substack, The Ladybird Purse, because of how she talked about money. (And also to try to encourage people to sign up to this Substack too, so if it worked and that’s why you’re here - Hi!)
You can read that post here:
Since it’s a new year, I thought I’d start each of these Suitcase posts with the relevant entries from Mum’s Five Year Diary.
1 January 1962
Arrived home from the party at 3.15am and consequently overslept. Arrived at work at 9.40am, everybody was allowed to go home at 4pm, but I stayed until 5pm to make the time up.
Harry and I were feeling rather the worse for wear so we stayed in.
We were all rather depressed in the office today because we heard that Jean Bryan died last night.
Ted phoned and asked me to go out Thursday. I asked him to ring again on Wednesday but later on I decided that I wouldn’t go out with him again, at least not while I’m going out with Harry.
2 January 1962
12pm Went over to the Mersey Mission1 and had lunch with Mo.
6pm Met Johnny at Woodside and went to the hospital to see Mum. She wasn’t too good at all. Arrived home at 8.40pm, watched television until about 10.15pm and then went to bed.
3 January 1962
Lunchtime. Went to town and paid £2 to Joan [Barries] for Mo.
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Dad’s nickname for her was “Glam”
(no one has ever called me glam)
In this post, I mentioned the gorgeous, glamorous tiny photos I’d found. I still haven’t had a chance to take them to see if they’re enlargeable, but I will.
I think, judging by the following, all these photos were taken in Switzerland:
I’ll see what I can find about her Switzerland trip next time.
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Tried to find out what this was but nope.
Where did she work that she had to work on New Year's Day?
I adore these posts! Your Mum was ultra-glam xxxxx