The Ravenstones

I’ve been keeping a diary, off and on, since junior high school.

It will come as no surprise to my loyal readers that the first diaries I used (doubtless a Christmas gift from my parents) were published by that venerable British stationary company, Letts of London.

John Letts opened his company in London in 1796, came up with the first commercial diary in 1812 and was soon producing a wide variety of styles to serve the growing middle class market of the United Kingdom.

It was only in 2014 that the company passed out of the family’s hands, being purchased by and assumed into the Filofax brand. Back in the early 1960’s they were selling real leather-covered editions for school boys (and girls), each with their tiny but very useful pencil. These took me through my last years of high school and into university.

In case you’re wondering, the photograph peeking out from the third diary depicted the great Formula-1 racing car driver, Stirling Moss, who’d come to visit Winnipeg in 1966 to promote the sport.

To my delight, the diaries came with a treasure trove of information, facts and figures, starting off with the inside cover:

Next came the contest:

Followed by a little science & technology:

Then four pages of books to read (categories like pets, sports and games, history and lives, religion, hobbies and pastimes, nature, theatre and film, careers):

A page of esoteric questions:

Next came a slew of information: a list of recent sports champions, in football (English not American), rugby, swimming, tennis and cricket; a page to record the upcoming 1964 Olympic Games medal winners (I actually did so); algebra and geometry formulae; weights and measures; conversion tables; logarithms and antilogarithms; squares, cubes and square roots; 16 pages of Latin verbs, French irregular verbs and German strong verbs (yes – German!); a list of every British sovereign and Prime Minister; and “outstanding events in British History”.

Then, yet more interesting topics: weather forecasting:

Stamp collecting:

Two pages on how to build a two-transistor radio:

Careers for boys (not excluding acting, dance or the military):

Then – before we get to the actual diary (two pages for an entire week, so not a lot of room to keep notes) – a calendar for the year, along with public and bank holidays, and 8 pages of photographs, including one of the actor, Sean Connery.

At the very end of the diary, space was provided for a school time table (filled in), exam results (also filled in), gramophone records (nothing there), films seen (12 noted), sports results, personal notes and eleven maps, covering the world.

As the years progressed, I ended up writing more and more, using the tiny pencil, until little was left of it, crowding each tiny space allocated to the diarist. Fortunately, each subsequent year provided an entirely new set of information and, as I got older, more space in which to write, culminating at one page per day.

So, after all that, what was the first thing I wrote about in my very first diary entry, Jan. 1 of 1964? I wish I could say it was something profound, memorable or at least insightful. But alas, no.

What does a 14 year old boy write about, after all? Entertainment. I’d seen a terrific war film, “12 O’Clock High”. Since the film came out in 1949, I must have watched it on television. It was indeed a great movie, starring the great Gregory Peck and winning a couple of Academy Awards. You can still watch the whole movie on Youtube.

Perhaps it indicated nothing more than a future (and lifelong) interest in the cinema. Well, nothing wrong with that. More to come on diaries next time.