As my loyal readers know, way back in the 50's when I was a kiddo, we had the first TV on our street. It had a reasonably large screen for those days. However there wasn't all that much to watch, a few cartoons, the local news a few game shows, some travelogs, and of course Friday Night Boxing. I was too young for school, but I liked the News programs and travelogs, I first saw the British Royal Family. I was purely amazed by what the Queen and her husband looked like, thought they would be like the characters in the story books, nope! they were real people, like you might see when you went to the 5 and Dime!!!
They were real people, they had dogs, the Mom
( namely Queen Elizabeth) had children and her Mom lived with her. WOWZA! OK so they lived in a huge, huge house, in England no less. But the Queen wore those silly head scarves, which I hated,and my Mother wore all the time. I did always wonder why they didn't have grand names like the royalty in storybooks, but I like that they didn't put people in dungeons,which was and idea that also came from storybooks. her Mother looked like she could be someone's Mom and Grandmother, and I began to follow their lives. I had a great deal of pre-kindergarten logic and imagination going on in my head about the Royals.
At one point my Mother gave me me two quarters and told me I could buy Christmas gifts for her and my father. I proudly marched into the biggest shoe store in town, and showed the salesman my 2 quarters and asked if he had any slippers with jewels on them like Kings and Queens wear? My parents ended up with a bottle of glue and a ball of string, Oh and a really good story about me.
Much later I was delighted that Queen Elizabeth meet the Beatles, and a bit jealous also, and that Mary Quant designed clothing for her. I admired her poise and dignity, it was easy to see she was also very real, very dedicated to her country.
She was an accomplished equestrian and had worked on Jeeps etc. during WWII. Also that her mother the "Queen Mum" had helped in air raid shelters during WWII, rather than staying at Buckingham Palace.
One of my favorite moments, was during the sadly ill fated wedding of Charles and Dianna, when the Queen, turned to the wedding party, her, hand on her hip, a look of only a Mom could have on her face and motioned to everyone that they should stop fussing and get moving!
Love this picture.
