![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Was That It?
Jun. 3rd, 2022 08:54 amI've seen the Queen. She drove through our town in 1960- give or take a year or two- and I was in the roadside crowd, dutifully cheering. Do I have a mental picture? Only a fuzzy one- which I suspect is more a guess at what I must have seen than an actual memory. The viewing was over in seconds. Only when it was right of front of me could I see the car, its approach and retreat being masked by the bodies of my fellow royalists. Was that it? Why did we bother? As far as I know- and I have over seventy years to sift through- this was the last and only time I've gone out of my way to gawp at a celeb.
Ahead of the big event I asked my mother for a football rattle so I could loyally crank it in the direction of the travelling monarch. She told me it would be inappropriate. Just not done- like talking in church. Did I get a little flag to wave instead? That's another detail I forget.
The media would have us believe that the Platinum Jubilee is a big event in the life of the nation. I've been looking for evidence and not seeing it. I walked through the suburbs yesterday and the houses displaying flags and royal portraits were few and far between. I won't pretend this didn't please me. I think, barring the sort of unforseen eruption of which history is made up- that the awe in which monarchy is held will gradually fade away until passing pedestrians no longer even bother to turn their heads when representatives of the institution sweep by on their bicycles.
Yes, the Mall was full of people, but I'll bet a large percentage of them were foreign tourists, here to witness the kind of show- predictable as a fifteenth viewing of Phantom of the Opera- that we Brits are supposed to manage so well...
Ahead of the big event I asked my mother for a football rattle so I could loyally crank it in the direction of the travelling monarch. She told me it would be inappropriate. Just not done- like talking in church. Did I get a little flag to wave instead? That's another detail I forget.
The media would have us believe that the Platinum Jubilee is a big event in the life of the nation. I've been looking for evidence and not seeing it. I walked through the suburbs yesterday and the houses displaying flags and royal portraits were few and far between. I won't pretend this didn't please me. I think, barring the sort of unforseen eruption of which history is made up- that the awe in which monarchy is held will gradually fade away until passing pedestrians no longer even bother to turn their heads when representatives of the institution sweep by on their bicycles.
Yes, the Mall was full of people, but I'll bet a large percentage of them were foreign tourists, here to witness the kind of show- predictable as a fifteenth viewing of Phantom of the Opera- that we Brits are supposed to manage so well...
