January 1st 1961

Sunday 1 January 1961
Martin Dove (age 12)

Everyone went out at night.
I watched TV all day.
Wrote to Melvyn.

—-

My parents would both have been 49, and I presume that they had gone to the Working Men’s Club, which was their favourite place to socialise.
My brother Ray would have been 17, so I guess he was out with his mates.

TV in 1961 was not like today, tiny TV sets, only 2 channels, no colour, and no hand set.
Coronation Street was broadcast live from the studio.

I’ve forgotten who Melvyn was, I think maybe he was a pen pal.
A pen pal was someone you wrote letters too, and then you would wait for them to write back.
There were no text messages then, no internet, and no phones, we didn’t even have a landline.

Coming soon

On Christmas Day 1960, Martin Dove opened his Christmas presents, and among them was a one year diary. Martin was 12 years old at the time, and decided that it would be fun to keep a daily record of his adventures. This went on to become an obsession every day for the next 60 years, and now to celebrate a sexagenery of diary writing, this modern day Pepys has decided to share his daily jottings with the world.

Martin grew up in Scarborough, so locals will be fascinated by life in Scarborough in the 1960’s.

Martin, now aged 71, still lives in Scarborough, and has documented many changes over the decades. For example, Martin spent a lot of time enjoying Gala Land, he attempted to get Helen Shapiro’s autograph when she performed at the Floral Hall, and he memorably went to see The Beatles at The Futurist. Growing up in the sixties, it was inevitable that Martin would join a rock n roll band, and all this and much more has been documented in these incredible diaries.

Martin intends to post his diary on blogger.com as a daily treat, starting on 1 January 2020. He will copy every word exactly as it was written in 1961, and add any comments or clarification at the end.