Wednesday 6 June 2012

60 Diamond Years

This year saw the Queen's 60th Jubilee. I'm not a big royalist but I don't have anything against them either and I do enjoy a royal knees up, especially the weddings.
I remember the Queen's silver jubilee really well, considering I was so very very very young ;-) My mum and the neighbours set up a silver jubilee committee and held meetings in each others house on Friday nights where they discussed things like vol-au-vonts and drank bottles of Manns. They would go around each door and collect a weekly payment from everyone who wanted to attend. Everything was planned to perfection. The street was closed off and buntified, most of the houses was decorated and our house even made the local paper as one of the best decorated houses. On the day the weather was lovely, the party commenced in the street with fun games and a huge fancy dress parade. I remember being Little Bo Peep, but the winner was a silver queen, her outfit was made entirely out of tin foil and was pretty amazing.....even more amazing was that she survived the parade without being cooked! Then we changed into more regular clothes which meant a street full of Charlie's Angels jump suits, (mine was red and about two inches too short in the legs)
We then moved into the church hall, lucky that our street had it's own chapel, and a big slap up buffet was provided. Finally we partied until late in the hall and grounds.

A picture of the chapel in our street


This year I so wanted to do something. I knew I wouldn't be able to organise a street party like my mum did, but I did consider opening my garden up to friends and neighbours and hosting a BBQ. Sadly the weather leading up to the jubilee put me off planning anything. I regretted my decision slightly the week before when the weather brightened up but it was too late for me to arrange anything as I was away on holiday. So we did nothing :-( well, apart from watch on TV. I feel sorry that my girls didn't get to celebrate and have the memories that I have from my childhood, I doubt that they will  have any memories at all, especially as they missed their school party for being on holiday. Then I realised that by the time there would be another jubilee I would be way too old to organise anything and for a moment I wished I could rewind the weekend and do something.  Instead I will make a promise that next time anything Royal happens, a wedding or even a coronation, then I will celebrate with my family and give my little ones something to remember. 

There was a special event we did share though, while were on holiday we saw the Olympic torch procession. We lined the streets and waved our flags as it went past. Hopefully the girls will remember that because it's not something they are likely to experience again.


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