Remembering Rachel

[amberdreams]

It would have been Rachel's birthday today, so I trawled back through my horribly self obsessed and angsty and pompous diaries for a few fun snippets.

Diary entries

Aged 11

1972 May Saturday - 4 Jumble sales went to 2. Got so much stuff had to get the bus home with Rachel.

Sunday - Rachel and I tried to build a hut in the "Hokeys". We gave ourselves beards from crayon I was a miner she was a Frenchman.

Aged 12-13

1973 - Went to Sudley Park with Rachel, Rosemary and Catherine. Rachel got a fright because their dog Toby was in the field and it attacks her. It didn't though. We gave R & C piggybacks + had wheelbarrow races, piggyback races + shoulder ride races. C is great at wheelbarrows. R wiggles her bum so much she looks as if she's trying to swim!

Went to Hydes with Rachel. She was going to led me 1 1/2 p from the change because the bread was only 7 1/2p instead of 10 1/2p but they didn't have any 1 1/2p lolly ices, so I asked to borrow 2p. I asked for a smash + he gave me mashed pot. And then after that he didn't have ANY lolly ices! We ended up buying a cider one at the sweet shop + it turned out we got it free! Cause he'd given us too much change in Hydes.

Aged 13-14

1974 August - Quarreled with Rachel. She had to go to town, but Mum wouldn't let me go cos of room (being untidy) sp R went off in a huff.

Aged 14-15

1975 - any given Sunday... Went to the launderette with Rachel; listened to the Top Twenty (or the Beatles, Jesus Christ Superstar or Simon & Garfunkel) with Rachel; played monopoly with Rachel; had argument with Rachel...

28th Jan - Rachel came round at about 6.15(pm). She told me she'd run away. She'd been arguing with her mum, and she told her that she wouldn't go back home, and her mum said 'don't'. She had been to school and the library and now she'd come here. Just after she came, Richard called. I told him she wasn't here. She wished she hadn't said anything, but she was too scared to go home. About nine o'clock her mum called to see if I knew Clare Hughes' address. Mum and Dad were home now + didn't know R was here. When Mrs Henney had gone Dad told R to go home but she didn't. She told me she went to Bootle by bus and followed the 61 route home. She didn’t get home until 10 or 11.

Aged 15-16

1976 - February. Rachel came round and we went for a walk in Sudley Field. We were supposed to be getting grass for the guinea pig but there wasn't any worth picking yet. We walked very slowly up to the museum and decided to go in....what a treasure house it is.

It was funny when we went in, the curators were following us around because we looked dead scruffy. I just wore my jeans, a t shirt that was too big and a rather shapeless corduroy jacket. Rachel had this tartan print skirt which was really her little sister Rosemary's, a big baggy t shirt of her Dad's and a jacket belonging to her brother Richard. No wonder they followed us around.

1976 May. At the last minute we decided to go to a dance/disco at the Polytechnic. It took us ages to pluck up the courage to go in, Rachel wanted me to take the lead, which I did eventually. It was quite a disappointment, it took so long to warm up. The first group, Muscles - their music was all the same and got really boring. Nobody liked it, and everyone just stood around spilling beer in big puddles. You felt like a traitor if you danced. As soon as Muscles had gone everyone livened up and me and Rachel got two dances in a row. Rachel fancied one, she christened him Kenny Everett or Red Pumps! I kept my glasses on and I’m glad I did, cos the lead singer of the second group, the Steve Gibbons Band, was rather good looking.

So many memories, good and bad. I haven't transcribed any of the miserable entries when we were arguing and out of friends, though. Whatever was going on, Rachel was always there, even though we were at different schools and it sometimes felt we lived in different worlds. It feels so wrong that she's no longer anywhere.

Comments

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I can imagine, and I'm sending you lots of snuggly thoughts. It's okay to be sad, though, because sadness just means the person who's gone meant a lot to you x