The Secret Diary of Deirdre Hunt aged Sixteen 1/2

[FeelsLikeKellyCrabtree]

I had my tonsils out this week and have been advised to stay indoors for a fortnight to avoid infection. I put a post up on the Lowlife board to ask for ideas for things to do to while away the hours while I was cooped up. Among the many ideas given Paul suggested I write The Secret Diary of Deirdre Hunt, aged 17 and post it on here.

I wasn’t going to do it at first but out of sheer boredom this morning I gave it a go. I thought it would make a really good Lowculture fan-fiction thread and that the idea could be for a person to write a weeks worth of entries and then pass it on to the next person for them to write a week.

I’ve started it at the beginning of 1972, Deirdre is sixteen and a half and it’s almost two years before she’ll set foot on t’Weatherfield cobbles.

So that we can keep some order and continuity to this and that we don’t get several people writing for the same week etc, I propose that if people want to continue the story and write the next weeks entry they all message the previous author and then that person will announce who they have chosen to write the next entry. And so on…

[FeelsLikeKellyCrabtree]

Wednesday January 1st 1972

This year I’ll be 17. I can’t wait to grow up and get out of this house. Me Mam wouldn’t let me go to Marion’s New Years Eve party. She asked if there’d be alcohol at the party and I said no but she said she could tell I was lying. She said every time I open my mouth recently it’s to tell a lie. She said I’m not to go around with that Marion anymore. It’s only because Marion’s Mam lets her smoke in the house. I told her that it was a joint party with her cousin Yvonne because it’s Yvonne’s birthday in a week’s time but she still said no. Mam said she doesn’t like parties. She says I’m a fool for wanting to go. She said why would I want to buy a present for someone I hardly know then have to sit around a room with a load of people who hate each other and are only there for the buffet? I asked her what a buffet was and she said it’s what people put on when they can’t afford a sit down meal.

She let me stay up til midnight. We listened to the radio for the countdown and when it got to midnight we could hear fireworks and then me Mam kissed me on the head and said night. She said she couldn’t be doing with Auld Lang Syne because it was for queer Scottish folk who have nothing better to do than drink. She’s a right hypocrite. I could smell the Pernod off her as she walked past me and I swear she stumbled on the stairs.


Thursday January 2nd 1972

Back to work again today. It rained all day and me umbrella broke on the way to work so I had to stay in on me lunch hour incase I got wet. Dorian next to me asked what I did to celebrate the other night. I said I spent it with me Mam cos she’s not very well and she likes the company. She asked what was wrong and I said it’s her legs playing her up but Dorian said she saw her coming out of the doctors the other day and that she looked fine. I told her that it’s a medical condition that comes and goes and to mind her own business. Dorian said she was only asking but that me Mam should be careful with her legs especially when she’s been seen in the pub twice this week with different men each night because people might talk and wonder what it is that makes walking difficult for her. I didn’t really understand but said that she was on pills for it. Dorian said that she thought the sort of pill me Mam takes was for married women only.

Friday January 3rd 1972

Work was rubbish but that new lass with the red hair talked to me today. She said it was nice to work with another young girl because the last place she worked was full of old women. She said we should go on lunch together and that in time we might become really good mates. I said that would be a lovely idea. I think her name’s Julie but I’ve forgotten.

Saturday January 4th 1972

I was up early this morning cos me Mam had a woman round for a fitting. I could hear the two of them in the front room and when I went down me Mam was kneeling on the floor fixing the hem on the ladies wedding dress. She was telling her that it was 12 years since me Dad died and that she still thinks about him every day and that the woman would do good to remember that some folk aren’t as lucky as her to have a mans company. I was going to reminded her that she went away with that bloke in his van for the weekend in September but she looked at me in the doorway and told me to go and have a wash and put the kettle on.

When the lady had gone me Mam called me into the kitchen and said that the lady had a nephew who was my age and who would love to have a girlfriend like me. I said I didn’t want a boyfriend but she said I can’t be picky with looks like mine and that not many lads my age would look twice at a girl with lanky hair and specs the size of dishes. He’s called Michael and he’s coming around at seven to take me to the pictures.


Sunday January 5th 1972

I hate boys. I hate that Michael even more. Before he came me Mam told me to be on me best behaviour and to act like a lady. She said men don’t like women with a dirty mouth and she’s heard me with me mates in me room and she said if I spoke like that around a man he’d be off like a flash. She said that his parents are well to do and live in a detached in Halebarns so I’d do well to keep him. When he got here he was wearing a leather jacket and had a skin head. He looked at us both and asked which one was Deirdre. Me Mam took me into the kitchen and said he looked like a criminal and that she was going to tell him I’d been taken ill but I said that I wanted to go. I only said it because I knew it would annoy her. She said I was a woman of low standards and that I should aim for better men in life because I’m not going to achieve much on me own. Before I left she told me not to let him touch me between me navel and me knees and if he did I were to kick him in the shins and run to the nearest police station.

We went to the cinema and he asked if I liked horrors. I said I’d never seen one and he mumbled something about me in the mirror in the morning but I didn’t understand. When we sat down and it started it was the Exorcist. I’d heard all about it on the news and Marion had said that her Keith went with his mates and said it was the scariest thing he’d seen. I didn’t want to watch it so I took off my glasses and slipped them into my pocket so I wouldn’t be able to see. After about ten minutes Michael tried to put his arm around me. He said he was cold and it would warm him up. I let him because I haven’t kissed anyone for almost a year and something is better than nothing. After a while he started to kiss my cheek then his hand was on my chest and I told him to take it off and he started to lift me bra strap but I said I meant take his hand off not me bra strap and he laughed and said I should relax. I got up and ran off and I could hear him laughing.

Today me Mam kept asking how it went and if he’d given me any gifts. I told her that he didn’t and that I wasn’t going to see him again. She asked why and asked if he’d dumped me. I said he hadn’t and she said she wouldn’t be surprised because I was an awkward girl.

Monday January 6th 1972

After work I went over to Karen’s and we listened to some Slade and T-Rex. She’s a right trendy girl is Karen. She’s got all the LP’s and her Mam took her to London in the summer to get some dresses. She asked where I got my dress from and I said me Mam made it. She said it suited me. She said that not many girls can carry off mauve. That’s what me Mam says too. I said that me Mam could make her one if she liked but she laughed and said no thanks. I told her about Michael and she said some lads were rotters and not to beat myself up over it. She said that she’s been with seven lads since she were sixteen and that after the first time you won’t mind where they touch you.

Tuesday January 7th 1972

Me Mam went out tonight so I had the place to myself. That Julie at work said that we should meet up at the weekend and go to a café or something. She’s nice but a bit weird. She has short hair and wears trousers all the time. Me Mam reckons she’s a Christian but she doesn’t seem like one.

[pauliepoos]

That is marvellous. Absolutely marvellous. I won't offer to write the next part as I'm away most of this week but if I can be so bold so give some plot guidelines, I'd like to see Dierdre indulge in a flirtation with an older and married man.

I really am impressed. I can actually hear Blanche coming out with the things she says here.