OK - if I've done this right and anyone is interested you should be able to see my Dad's Diary for 1939 using the attached link.
Diary from 1939
Really interesting - I'll be checking back!
One comment - is it possible to make the differentiation between diary entry and your comments more marked?
I don't think the quotes marks on their own are enough.
Italics/bold/different face?
It's usually a piece of piss on things like Wordpress
Just a thought
Yes - I've just had the same comment from my daughter.
I'm new to this kind of thing and tried to edit past posts and couldn't work out how to do this.
I will try for future posts though.
Hey Chappers how much are yougoingto post? Because I would like to use some of it in school as it is an original source. We are studying the 1940's and 60's.
I like the look of this, Chappers. Should be interesting to see how the year unfolds.
You should definitely look into re-editing the posts as per Lazzard's suggestions though. You must know someone who is fairly tech-savvy who can help.
Could you give your daughter the password and get her to change it?
Anyway, very cool idea, I shall be reading it!
It's all kicking off now - or rather then.
Friday 1st September 1939
"Germany invaded Poland at dawn this morning. (Poles are holding up advance).
During the day most of our offices were closed owing to the International Situation. No general B.B.C. programmes on radio to-day, there is a new bulletin nearly every hour.
During Friday Radiolympia closed down, there is no more television until further notice and original B.B.C. programmes stopped (only gramophone now).
Rained a bit in morning, fine in afternoon."
I will definitely read that as I'm obsessed with the World Wars. Thanks Chappers.
Any chance of the B.B.C. restarting? I'm sorry but I'm a bit behind the times.
Fascinating reading - love details of early radio and entertainment.
"Monday 9th Jan. 1939" - I wonder who/what MN was at 7 as is mentioned a couple of times - anyone an idea?
However, "S Mac at the organ" - good," I do know is:-
Roderick Hallowell "Sandy" MacPherson was a Canadian-born (Paris, Ontario) theatre organist in the UK who as the second official BBC Theatre Organist (he succeeded Reginald Foort) achieved considerable broadcasting time in the early weeks of World War II.
(Wiki - saves me typing it out! 
)
As you know, much of Sutton is flat land now. On Cheam Road, though, it is still possible to imagine what it used to be like. The part where Harry Secombe lived, for example. Your father's diary adds detail to those impressions. It also provides a vivid picture of life before TV. Film and radio were closer to the centre of lives. I like the references to Askey and the other comedians. And some of the band leaders were very big household names. Geraldo, Jack Hylton and Victor Sylvester. They lend themselves to Cholmondley-Warner pastiche. But being reminded of their currency can also open the door to hearing them in a fresh way.
Sport - active and as a spectator - is a given but there is a lot of walking in that outdoorsy life too. My grandfather who died aged 50 in September 1939 used to leave Walworth for walks with family along the River Wandle on Sundays. He had a fantasy of buying a house there "in the country" but on Saturdays he would be at Millwall or The Oval. Not ever having known him, the diary gives me more of an insight into what his life was like. The language hasn't changed much. There are only a few variations - "wireless" instead of "radio" and references to "chums" and "chumming up". There is also an intriguing comment on "Trade Winds" on 30 June - "it was very f-good". That may be a misprint or an abbreviation for reasons of politeness!
The succinctness - obviously not my forte - is probably representative of its time but there would also have been practical constraints because it was a diary. There is a lot of feeling in it but he doesn't over emote which is extraordinary in view of what was coming. These days many people would be going crackers - "OMG, OMG" - but what they didn't have then was media bombardment. There is a real sense that the day-to-day is being lived in its own frame. Oddly his writing triggers a sense of matter-of-fact nostalgia for what we never knew. It is irrational and I ask myself why it does. I think from my own perspective it is partially the knowledge that there were fewer motor vehicles. As you say, your grandparents didn't own a car and while there was undoubtedly bustle I sense life was slower and quieter. And that meant steadier somehow.
Wow - thanks for your interest Hercules and Horseradish.
There were several abbreviations which I had to look up on the internet and I have You-Tubed several of the entertainers mentioned.
The f-good was TOTALLY my fault if it's there. It may have been V good and my fat fingers. He would never have dreamed of saying that - especially in a Diary that his family would have seen. Where does it feature?
And MN at 7. I'll have a look for that.
M.N. at 7 appears to have been on every Monday - I guess at 7 o'clock.
It varies in his opinion from Fair to Rotten so I really can't work out what it was.
Quote: Chappers @ 2nd September 2014, 6:41 PM BSTM.N. at 7 appears to have been on every Monday - I guess at 7 o'clock.
It varies in his opinion from Fair to Rotten so I really can't work out what it was.
Music Night? Thinking of Friday Night is Music Night, which apparently started in 1952 and is STILL going!!
Re the playing cards - Yes! When I was a lad, if there was nothing on the radio of any interest we used to.............play cards! Even later into the 60s at Christmas we never had the TV on at family gatherings and after a good chin- wag would play various card games into the early hours.
I think it was probably Monday Night at 7. Seems to make sense. I was just going to write to the Daily Mail about it but while I was writing it clicked.