1968: PINK SKIRT, PINK NAIL VARNISH, PINK HAT! — 1967-1968: Diary of a Posh Schoolgirl

Monday, 27 May

I felt utterly miserable and, on top of it all, Anya had a fab time on Saturday shooting. There were lots of snazzies there and it was gorgeous fun. I poured out all my misery, and she said she was miserable too, about money. At lunch time I wrote down all of her money-earning possibilities, with their disadvantages and advantages.

fruit picking in the Lake District
ice cream selling in the Lake District
car-park attending in Denmark
hotel work in Denmark
eye hospital washing dead-bodies

It was rather sickening in Prep. Martha started one of her futile religious arguments again and kept asking me questions like “how do you explain then how the universe was created?” Because the universe works, she thinks that means it was created by a god. Surely it’d be more logical to think it’d always been there, rather than a god coming along and creating it.

The rehearsal went marvellously. It was the first time I’ve felt I was acting well, and at the end Miss B said, “Ingrid, you were excellent"!!! Poor old Hawkesworth has been sacked - she’s too tall to be the front end of the horse so she’s going to be one of the choir. Taking over her distinguished position are Wendy MacQ and Pam. Pam keeps bending her knees and giving sexy wiggles, and then you hear the milk-bottles clanking and you know Howie and the horse are about to make one of their entrances. The whole thing is hilarious.

I’ve cheered up a lot since this morning.

Tuesday, 28 May

Wore turquoise skirt, turquoise jumper, Scholl sandals, no tights. Absolutely fantastic weather and the first time we’ve spent the day on the terrace this term. The red parasols came out and look terribly gay.

In Prayers Mrs Huggett told us about the new school mag. It’s going to be done on more journalistic lines and they want to make it chattier than last years. So we were given a form with about 20 questions like - what did you dream last night? Who would you have liked to spend the day with? I didn’t do it as the questions were rather personal but Anya did, and it was very amusing.

“What interested you today?”

“Discussing Pam’s potential as the back of Howie Newsome’s horse”!

We did the American Elections in Current Events. McCarthy sounds the nicest chap - he’s the only one who says Viet-Nam is wrong and means it. Bobby Kennedy says it because he has to. It’s awful the way the whole thing stinks of money, especially with him.

I didn’t get home till 8.15. The telephone box wasn’t working at Tadworth so I walked all the way and got blisters from my Scholl sandals. Ma and Pa were playing tennis with the Elliotts. Had a gorgeous supper and Frances was ecstatic about the chocolate rum pud! I don’t like her, she’s superior, but she’s such a lark that she can get away with it. But I like Arthur, he’s nice in so many ways. Discussed charity balls and the American elections, and forms you have to fill in on aeroplanes. Francis said that when Elaine got to “sex” she once wrote, “yes please”!

Wednesday, 29 May

‘Our Town’ by Thornton Wilder. Mrs Webb, far right

Sat outside the Gym with Anya instead of doing tennis. She showed me her Diary. She keeps it so wonderfully and sticks beautiful things in it, it makes me depressed to think I’ve wrecked mine.

Foul German diktat - 24 mistakes and 12 commas wrong - and had French conversation outside. Everybody had bagged the tables on the terrace at break so we sat against the wall. Pam’s legs have caught the sun so much it’s incredible.

Then we realised there was going to be a problem with the seating for the play - only the first three rows could see! So we got platforms from Hut D and put them at the back, then tables for people to sit on, then a row of double-stacked chairs, then, at the front, three rows of arm-chairs. Then we found the programmes were scrappy sheets of paper, no artistic cover or anything, there were even errors in the casting and several people left out! Anne F is meant to be the Managing Director and doesn’t know the play!

About 6.30 we got changed. Good old Fifi got everyone’s hair done, and soaked me in disgusting lacquer. Although it was Wednesday the place was packed by 7.30. In the first act the audience hardly laughed at a thing, not even when the trellis fell over; then the lawn mower drowned out the speakers’ lines. Then when I said “Emily, come and help me string these beans for the winter,” I gave her a soggy handful of beans but no knife so she was stringing beans with her fingers. But the main calamity was half way through the first act when Claire realised she’d left the wedding dress at home! But really the whole thing was terrific. I think the chickens got the most laughs and the horse caused quite a riot.

Anya and Pat thought it was “very good” - but I think they might have congratulated us personally. All Anya could talk about was the ghastly people sitting behind them. Mrs Bensted took me home and said she thought it was marvellous. Some of the audience were crying at the end, which I’m thrilled about. But she didn’t actually mention me, so I must be pretty mediocre.

Thursday, 30 May

After school Pam and me lay down in the long grass to brown the backs of our legs. The grass is rather long and full of daisies, it looks like a jungle when you’ve got an ant’s-eye view. When the squeaky violin in the distance finished its lesson it was perfectly silent. It was like we were in a film.

Thousands of people came to the play - some had to be turned away! Ma, Pa and Chump sat in the double-stacked row, so had a pretty good view. Anyway, the play just couldn’t have been better - it went incredibly! Christa came up to us after each scene, patting us on the shoulder and telling us, in a hushed voice, we were great. Not one line had to be prompted, everyone acted superbly, it was all just so great you wondered how long it could last. I felt like a stick, so thin and everything… still, I look the part! Pa said he’d seldom enjoyed a play so much. To think we all loathed it at the beginning! Ma said I did the worried wedding bit marvellously - so nice to know. There were sobs all around at the end, and Claire couldn’t say her lovely line “goodness, that ain’t no way to behave,” she was crying so much. Oh it was a fabulous evening.

Friday, 31 May

Everyone madly sunbathed at break, it’s hilarious. Dorothy M is a glorious colour, and I’ve got the brownest legs of anyone I know.

Birdy let me off Pottery so I sat out with Anya and Fifi and did some work. Anne Dobby said her mother thought I was even better than Emily!! Had to sit under an umbrella at lunch I was so baked.

Did my hair at home and it came out foul. Had supper on the terrace - asparagus, chicken, strawberries, terribly good: Had a bath with Chump, then saw ‘Angel Pavement’. Turgis is lovely and reminds me of Dutronc, but it’s so sad. In his anger he gets hold of the bitchy girl he worships and (I think) strangles her.

Saturday, 1 June

Wore pink skirt, pink top, pink bobbles, pink bracelet, and pink nail varnish. Got on well with homework considering the heat.

Left for Bosham in the Lancia! First time ever I’ve been in a sports car! Hair not bad because I wore my pink hat, which I had to clutch onto with one hand. Once we passed this snazz in a sports car and hooted at him as we overtook; when he saw us he hooted until we were out of sight, and grinned like mad! His hooter was one of those fab continental ones.

Ma and Pa left us at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s. Sozzy, Rhys and Jane were also there, so us two took Jane along to the Quay to play with her boat. Got back to a lot of rather dull people who’d come over for drinks. Later, Sozzy and me had an argument with Rhys, who can’t understand why I don’t want to go to Oxford or Cambridge. I object to Oxford and Cambridge because they have this stuffy, superior attitude. He says that’s nonsense, they’re the best places to meet the most interesting people. Well, you’re bound to meet boring and interesting people at every university - and Oxford and Cambridge have their good share of the boring. What really gets me is Grandma siding in the background with Rhys. What does she think she knows about it?

2020: Why did my charming uncle make me so cross? I’d always taken his side before, in arguments with my super-bullish father. The 60s-built universities, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Warwick, were high on my list, but were Oxbridge students so stuffy and superior? Weren’t some of them, the modern arty ones who liked acting and fashion, more fun, even dashing? I was proud of my grammar school and thought public schools ghastly, but seven years earlier I’d been rejected by St Paul’s. Deep down I thought I would not cut the mustard.

Being upset comes from an insecure place.

Ma and Pa came back late from the theatre. Forgot my nightie for the boat.

Sunday, 2 June

Sunny all day and my face got quite red. Sailed to Newtown Creek.

We went ashore at a different place from usual so had a terribly long walk to the pub. Sat outside; I had crisps and a lemon shandy. This little boy was sitting next to us and started grinning at me. Pa asked his father if he knew of a short-cut back, and the father offered to take us in his car! Terribly nice of him. We were back in five minutes.

Poor Mummy didn’t feel very well today, don’t think she did yesterday either. I so hope she sleeps well tonight.

What an utterly unsatisfying Diary. Uninteresting, and untidy.