Old Lad

I have just bought my new diary for 2027. I am still one of those people who prefers to use a paper pocket diary. I know that the rest of the world seems to have gone electronic but deep down I don’t trust electronic calendars. Gadgets can go wrong, phones and tablets can be hacked and apart from losing it a paper diary is pretty reliable. From early childhood I’ve always like to have a diary and it was a regular Christmas stocking filler for me. It was always a small Letts diary with a pencil tucked in the spine ( Letts are still the biggest providers of diaries although they are now owned by Filofax). I used to look forward to the new diary and browsing through the useful information it contained. So I knew about all the various time zones, how to convert pounds and ounces to metric measures, what date Easter was going to be for the next 50 years, public holidays in each country etc. And of course there was always a map of the London tube, so even though I did not go to London until I was 16 I knew the names of most of the tube stations! Occasionally I would be given a Letts diary for Boys which was meant to impart manly things like shirt collar sizes, a list of the main types of nautical knots and how to tie them, and the text of the Scouts promise! There was an equivalent Diary for Girls butI never did find out what that contained!

I was never a diarist though and made very few entries in these early diaries until I went to the Grammar school and the diary then became a useful way to record important bits of the school timetable – like when to take PE kit. And in a way I am sad I didn’t keep any of these early diaries because I’m sure even a brief entry would be a memory jogger. My late wife always had a pocket paper diary and made regular entries of events on each day although never a detailed journal. She also kept her diaries and I have a carrier bag full of about 25 years worth of them. Occasionally I pick one at random and they do give a detailed snapshot of our life and do provoke memories. For example a single word entry with the name of one of our grandchildren will signify a day of either childcare or picking up from school. “Dancing class” will be a reminder of the taxi of Mum and Dad. There are entries for family meals, birthdays, barbecues, shopping trips, each of which still provokes a memory. There’s an entry in the 2013 diary for my 65th birthday followed by a line of exclamation marks, the significance of which I can only speculate about! Perhaps she thought I was now an Old Lad! She also suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis which she bore with immense fortitude and in the diaries there is the comment “flare up” which would signify a bad day, but the same day would contain an entry for some activity like childcare which says a lot about her character. I am glad I’ve got the carrier bag.

I suppose looking back I should have kept a proper journal type diary because living in the latter part of the twentieth century was a time of great change and maybe my children would have been interested – or maybe not. I do like reading famous people’s diaries. My especial favourite has been those written by Alan Bennet the playwright. The late playwright John Mortimer titled his memoir “Clinging to the Wreckage “ which I find intensely amusing. It’s a phrase which at times sums up what it’s like being an Old Lad!