{"id":10488,"date":"2022-09-08T20:30:16","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T20:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10488"},"modified":"2022-10-04T12:59:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T12:59:06","slug":"a-visit-by-the-queen-was-mostly-fleeting-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10488","title":{"rendered":"A visit by the Queen was mostly fleeting memories …"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013\u00a0In June of 1973, Queen Elizabeth II made a tour of Canada and The Windsor Star newspaper sent me to cover her visit at the nearest city where she would be seen, London , Ontario.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Queen, along with the Duke of Edinburgh, was in the rain-soaked city for precisely 140 minutes to meet local dignitaries, receive a bouquet of flowers and a gift from the city, inspect an honour guard, sign the guest book, lunch with 500 local bigwigs, stroll through a roped-off section of Victoria Park (where the sun came out) and wave goodbye.<\/p>\n

This was my story …<\/p>\n

A visit by the Queen is part planning but mostly memories:<\/p>\n

A single bagpiper rehearsing tirelessly at London\u2019s armouries with the Queen hours away; the rumpled gentleman who had obviously spent the night in Victoria Park on a bench, where he still sat deep in thought, who when asked about the royal visitor shook his head and said, \u201cI was unaware the lady was on her way\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

The little girl named Allison who found herself in wonderland when she was selected to present a bouquet to the monarch after she had written to her in her tidy Grade 3 handwriting to invite the Queen to tea \u2013 she mentioned her brother and sisters and gave their ages and a dog named Charlie who was four and a rabbit named Snowball and a hamster named Christa but she was afraid she didn\u2019t know how old they were. She signed off, \u201cWell, I better go now, so long Allison\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

Two ladies with their daily bet on what colour dress the Queen will wear; grown men sneaking into the hall after the Queen\u2019s luncheon to grab souvenir menus; the kid selling $57 worth of ice cream on a cold and rainy day \u2026<\/p>\n

The crowd applauding an hour before the Queen arrives when the sun breaks fleetingly through the clouds; the awesome gasps at the real-life aura of this lady who is Queen; the cries of \u201cShe\u2019s beautiful!\u201d when she steps from her car in mint green coat and dress; the loss of words of young girls when the slimly handsome Duke stops to say hello \u2026<\/p>\n

The way that anyone who owned a uniform was wearing it from nurses to boy scouts to safety patrol youngsters; the safety patrol boy who took a picture of the Duke and the Duke telling him that it was too bad he couldn\u2019t get a picture of the Queen too; the woman who lost her voice when the Queen asked if she got wet while waiting \u2026<\/p>\n

The barefoot kids running between the guard of honour and being chased by police; the crowd yelling at photographers to duck out of the way and the photographers trying to squat and take pictures at the same time; the reporter guiltily picking up cigarette butts from the freshly swept steps of Centennial Hall before the Queen emerges \u2026<\/p>\n

The five militia bandsmen who were late arriving from Stratford running to their positions before the Queen arrives clutching their hats and instruments; the captain of the Royal Canadian Regiment Assault Pioneers saying that if they\u2019d been regular soldiers, they\u2019d be in jail by now; the Assault Pioneer Guards with their 16-pound axes on their shoulders and shell casings tucked craftily under their tunics to prevent the blades from cutting \u2026<\/p>\n

The writers and cameramen kicked out of the gallery of Centennial Hall while the Queen had lunch \u2013 Inspector Perkins of Scotland Yard, the Queen\u2019s chief protocol officer, informing them in clipped English tones that he didn\u2019t know why but he been told to clear the gallery and the gallery was going to be cleared \u2026<\/p>\n

The kids wearing garbage bags to keep off the rain; the harried parents at the rear of the crowd holding up disappointed offspring who didn\u2019t get to see the Queen; the cheers moving along the crowd lined against the barriers like a flame along a fuse \u2026<\/p>\n

The veteran BBC camera- and sound-men and the stories of their hilarious one-liners on the royal tour press bus; the dapper BBC commentator\u2019s apologetic regrets that British television and press seemed to be paying more attention to Watergate than to the Queen\u2019s tour of Canada \u2026<\/p>\n

The self-consciousness of the civic luncheon guests in their prim attire as they walked past the rain-bedraggled royalists who had to wait outside and the smugness on their faces as they clutched their invitations \u2026<\/p>\n

The seven gleaming Chevrolets that formed the motorcade, brand new cars with not a speck of dirt on the undersides but with the radios already installed for their work from now on as police cruisers; the faultless precision of the First Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment guard of honour; the little boy with a huge canvas bag and a pointed stick still plucking litter from the grass of Victoria Park moments before the Queen\u2019s stroll \u2026<\/p>\n

The sudden doubts when it was all over so fast about whether or not the Queen had really been there at all and the eerie thought that the whole trip could have been staged without the Queen and as with the Emperor\u2019s new clothes most of us wouldn\u2019t have known the difference \u2026<\/p>\n

The lady walking away from it all saying \u201cWell, I saw Prince Philip\u2019s hand\u201d; the business-as-usual attitude of the Holiday Inn with its huge sign proclaiming, \u201cA hearty welcome, IBM of Canada\u201d; the sign outside Metropolitan United Church across the street from the Queen\u2019s honour guard, which said the 11 a.m. sermon was \u201cWe still need pioneers\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

The bells of St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral peeling loudly as the Queen and the Duke drive away \u2026<\/p>\n

(Top photo shows the royal couple at Niagara-on-the-Lake on the same tour in 1973)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013\u00a0In June of 1973, Queen Elizabeth II made a tour of Canada and The Windsor Star newspaper sent me to cover her visit at the nearest city where she would be seen, London , Ontario. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1263,2257],"tags":[5235,4297],"class_list":["post-10488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","tag-prince-philip","tag-queen-elizabeth-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10488"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10504,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10488\/revisions\/10504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}