Sixty Years Ago...

Today's BBC News has been replete with pictures of the festivities celebrating 60 years since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, interspersed with news shots from coronation day.  I just saw a picture of the packed stand where I sat with my mother, watching the great parade go past.  If that picture had stayed on the screen a few moments longer I might have been able to identify us.  I remember the day very clearly. Fearing a possible traffic snarl-up on the day, I had slept in a sleeping bag underneath the stand on the previous night. "Slept" is a figure of speech.  It was a record-breaking cold night, down to 2 C in central London, and I did more shivering that sleeping in my rather poorly insulated army surplus sleeping bag, envying the couple near me who snuggled together - more in amorous union than to keep warm but no doubt their active show of mutual affection generated heat too. About 9 am on coronation day, loud speakers piped the BBC Radio News to all of us waiting in the Australian stand. A cheer rang out when it was announced that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norkay had reached the summit of Mount Everest, a cheer drowned by the much louder cheer from the adjacent New Zealand stand Where Wendy - whom I hadn't yet met of course - was watching.  I don't suppose many of us stopped to think about how long the new queen would reign over us. She has presided over a disintegrating empire and a dysfunctional family and can be relied upon to utter comforting words appropriate for all occasions. She deserves at least one of the long service medals she hands out to others in her official capacity.