On the telly… In the Eurovision Song
Contest, Lulu’s Boom Bang-a Bang was one of four songs that finished first in
an unprecedented four way tie.
In the news… John Lennon married Yoko Ono.
They spent a whole week in bed and invited the world’s press to witness what
they called a bed in. ‘For peace’ John Lennon said. I understood his thinking as the horrors
of the Vietnam War were on the news every night, but I still thought he was
potty.
At school…
I had
a headache. Not any old headache, but a skull cracking stinker that arrived late in the morning and worsened through dinner time. It got so bad that I didn’t care tuppence for the rule against entering the school during break and went straight to our classroom, where I flopped in my chair and slumped over my desk. Some time later Mister Porter came in.
‘Gerard?
Gerard? Good grief boy, what’s the matter with you?’
‘It’s
my head Sir. It’s killing me.’
Mister
Porter saw I was in bad way. He led me into the corridor and knocked at one of
the doors opposite. A nurse came to the door and took me inside.
A
couple of tablets, a cold flannel on the forehead and a lie down for an hour did
the trick. Though I thanked the nurse, it barely expressed the gratitude I had for
her and Mister Porter, who I thanked on my return to class.
The
inter-house football tournament was something to look forward to but as a third
year in the upper school, a place in the Gordon team couldn't be taken for
granted.
Yes!
I was
thrilled to be chosen for the team. A feather in my cap I thought.
Getting
thrashed by Nowell brought me down to earth with a bump. Jimmy Guntripp brought
me down to earth with a bump too, in the first five minutes. Jimmy was a fifth
year and a broad stocky lad, and when we collided, hip to hip, I bounced off
him and went sprawling in the dirt. The rest of the game passed me by. As
usual, Nowell won comfortably. Some things never changed.
At Priestfield Stadium… another midweek match. Big
Bill Williams headed two identical goals past the Oldham goalie from successive
corners to give Gillingham a 2-0 win and two
more points in the fight against relegation.
At Wembley Stadium… Manchester
City beat Leicester
in the Cup Final. Live matches on telly were few and far between and missing it through work was a big disappointment. My job at the International Stores had to come
first, but a delivery close to home enabled me to nip in and steal five crafty minutes in front of the telly. The timing couldn’t have
been better, as I saw what turned out to be the only goal of the game.
At home… I bought another Top of the
Pops LP at Twydall Woolworth’s.
As
usual there was a good looking bird on the front. And as usual there was the same come and get down to the latest groovy
sounds crap on the back.
After playing the latest groovy sounds until I got bored, I switched the record player speed to 78rpm to hear the Pinky and Perky versions; Monsieur Dupont was especially good.
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