Day: January 4, 2024

Diary: 4 January 1985 to 6 January 1985

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Friday 4 January 1985

Dull
Watched Superman 2.
Played with lego and a game.

Superman II was released in cinemas in 1980 so I must have watched this on television or VCR. The film is rated a PG. My parents must have considered it suitable. I wonder how much time they spent on this decision? As much time as my partner and I spend when considering what our daughter can watch?
My diary is very factual. I just state what I did. I rarely say whether I enjoyed it. Is this typical for a 9 year old?

Saturday 5 January 1985

Cold Sunny
Took all the decorations
down. Played game.
Watched television.

We were a family that followed tradition and took down the Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night. Did the lounge seem bigger with the Christmas tree packed away? We had a plastic tree, not a real one. The tree lasted for 35 years and at the end was rather bald.

Sunday 6 January 1985

Snowed cold
Went to Auntie Lillys and
Uncle Jack. Played lots
of games.

It snowed. The Isle of Wight has a very mild climate. I remember little snow from my childhood.
Auntie Lilly and Uncle Jack were my dad’s aunty and uncle. They lived in Binstead.
I used the word ‘lots’. I’m going to interpret this to mean that I had an enjoyable day. I expect we played board games and card games. I remember Great Uncle Jack teaching me to play Rummy and encouraging me to hold my cards close so no one could see them.

Those giraffe jokes are terrible. Did I think they were funny when I was 9?

Diary: 31 December 1984 to 3 January 1985

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Monday 31 December 1984

Dull, Watched t.v.
Played a game

I decided to start with a summary of the weather. I continued this for every day of the diary.
It doesn’t sound like the most thrilling New Year’s Eve, but I was only 9.

Tuesday 1 January 1985

Cold dry
Nan came down, played a game
Uncle Chris came down, went to
MFI. A.Sheila came with are presents.

Uncle Chris was my dad’s younger brother. He had a car. My dad didn’t, and I never knew why. 
MFI was a chain of furniture shops which lasted from 1964 to 2008. I remember it being “cheap and cheerful.” Did we buy anything?
Aunty Sheila was my dad’s aunt. She lived in Cowes, two miles away. Did we get presents for New Year? We would have got Christmas presents from her the week before. Are/our: I was only 9. Look at my neat handwriting.

Wednesday 2 January 1985

Cold dry. Nan came down,
played games.
Watched television.

I refer to both my dad’s mum and my mum’s mum as Nan throughout the diary. This was Connie Jones, my mum’s mum. Her husband Bob died in 1981 when I was 5. She lived by herself in Newport, three miles away.

Thursday 3 January 1985

Cloudy Sunny
Watched television
Played with lego and a game.

Was it more cloudy or more sunny? Or an equal amount of both?
The perennially popular Lego. What game did I play? I wasn’t big on details back then.