Queen Elizabeth 60 years - memories

[Hollytree]

Watching last night on BBC tv the programme on the Diamond Jubilee made me remember the fun we had as children over the Coronation time in 1953 and I wonder what others experienced (those who are old enough!)

My dad was the local scout master and I remember him helping the local church hall and committee put on a lunch for the local elderly folk. A television was set up in the hall with a huge screen and the old folks sat and oohed and aaahed at the wonders of technology. My mum seemed to be buttering loads of sandwiches and making vast cups of tea for them and I got in their way. Then I think I was sent home for my dinner only to miss the important part of the coronation, the bit when they plonked the crown on her head! All in black & white.......had to go to the pictures (cinema) to see it in colour.

We lived in a council house estate and all our mums painted flower boxes and pots red white and blue, and my dad and next doors dad made a huge crown out of ply wood with flashing red white and blue lights (which kept me awake at night) and took turns to plug the lights into their electric sockets..........

Happy days

What's your memories? First tellie, street parties?

Anne

[Liane Hawes]

Oooh I'm too young to remember the coronation but I have great memories of the Silver Jubilee. The village organised a party for the children on the village green and because I had chicken pox I wasn't supposed to go but i can remember my mum covering my face with her foundation to cover the spots up so that I didn't miss out. then in the evening our street had a massive party, with a fancy dress competition for the kids. My mum dressed me up as Queen Elizabeth 1 but I ended up standing next to a boy who was dressed as Dumbo and everytime he turned his head he knocked my wig and crown off - wasn't amused!! Everybody helped do something towards the party - sandwich making, teas, cakes etc and a disco that went on all night - fabulous times

[radstockjeff]

On arrival at RAF Eastleigh Nairobi, at the start of a commonwealth tour, just days before King George died. I was there!

radstockjeff

[radstockjeff]

And so were these fine looking gentlemen!


radstockjeff

[G.V.Ford]

The first I knew that the king had died was when another boy at school told me; I didn't believe him. The radio played somber music all day with occasional announcements of his death.

By the coronation we had a television set (a Murphy 125, 9 inch screen). My father ran the "village" stores at Barming Heath, Kent, and I think every one of his customers and a few extra were crammed into our lounge to watch the ceremony. The start of a really glorious reign.

Geoff

[exiled brummie]

We were enduring a history lesson when our master, a fearsome Welshman, was called to the form room door. After some whispered words he returned looking very subdued. He then announced very quietly that the King had died. We all sat there stunned, and then of my form mates said, "Gosh, that means we'll have some new stamps"!!

Our master said such insolence deserved detention but now was not the time. He dismissed us and rushed from the room so we wouldn't see him crying.

[JenniLl]

I can remember hearing that the King had died and many of us children wearing black armbands.

By the time of the Coronation we had a small television at home that we watched - in black and white. Preparation for the great day went ahead at school and at home. School gave us a spoon with an E on the handle plus a copy of the New Testament with a crown and an E upon the cover (I went to a Church school.) At home we had a street party with all the adults mucking in to provide the food; all the children were given mugs with a photo of the Queen on it. It was a lovely occasion and something to look back on with pleasure.

Jenni

[DorothySandra]

The party in my grandmother's street in inner-city Liverpool. A cul-de-sac with a pile of debris still lying where two or three houses had been in one corner. All the adults knew who we were, and we knew all the children, even though we didn't live there.

Pictures that changed from the Queen to Prince Philip as you moved them - these were on brooches, probably on other things. The cheerful colours of the "union jack", fluttering everywhere, and printed on the most unlikely objects. The magic of the the coronation coach, which could only be appreciated in full when you saw the little golden plastic models, because the films and photographs were black and white. 25 years later in outback Australia, I saw one of these models, and the magic hadn't worn off.

PS I still think we have the most cheerful flag in whole world!

[daleaway]

I've still got a couple of those "changing pictures" of the Queen and the Duke, DorothySandra. A small square one and a rather oversized one in a silver oval frame to be worn as a brooch (and I do - to my Red Hats gatherings! Google Red Hats and you'll understand why...)

I remember the city's largest department store putting a framed photo of King George in the window when he died, and just about depleting the town of purple and black satin cloth to fill the rest of the window.

The King had never had a presence in New Zealand, not having visited since he was a young Duke of York in the 1920s, but the idea of a young female as our new figurehead was quite attractive, with the prospect of lots of glittery frocks and jewels to admire. We embraced the idea of being Young Elizabethans. Needed a bit of glamour after the war years and the rationing which had only just ended in this country. I think you still had it in 1952 in the UK, didn't you?

Dale in New Zealand

[Ladkyis]

There was a fancy dress parade at my Grandmother's street. Everyone was dressed as a queen or a prince or a rabbit. Me? I was a maypole.....................There are no pictures so you must imagine a sullen six-year-old girl with blond hair wearing a coolie hat that has streamers dangling from it. He bottom lip is sticking out and her arms are tightly crossed over her chest. She speaks to no one, especially not her mother! She does not see the joke, in fact this was probably her first total sense of humour failure.
The trauma has never left me. ~sigh~