Going through a pile of old schoolbooks, pictures and cards at my Mom's house today, I came across my 'Silver Jubilee' souvenirs.
Now, anyone at school in the UK during the summer of 1977 will remember the Queen's Silver Jubilee. It was all-consuming and took over our thoughts and spare time for months. Well it did for me, anyway. I kept a Silver Jubilee diary...
19th May 1977
This week the Queen is in Scotland. The children in Glasgow had a special holiday from school. On the news on television we could see the children on the footpath to cheer and wave their flags. I liked the Queen's hat but not her dress.
3rd June 1977
Today is a very special day. We are going to get a free gift. We had to sit on the grass and we saw Miss Reader's Scottish dancing group. Mandy Webb was the lead-girl. The girls wore leotards and Neil wore shorts. Then we got our free gift. It was a spoon.
13th June 1977
Last tuesday was a special Jubilee holiday. We had a street party. Cars kept upsetting our tables. We had a knees up party in a tent. I drank a bottle of Babycham and half a pint of Pomagne with Neil.
20th June 1977
It was our school Jubilee party last night. I had two hot dogs, 14 cakes and 5 drinks but no Babycham. Neil was there. I went to bed at half past midnight.
The whole summer I was obsessed with things royal. I started to collect pictures of the Queen and liked to talk about what she was wearing. I wanted to design dresses for the Queen but my dad said this wasn't really a good career choice for me. That didn't stop me drawing the dresses though....
The whole Neil thing was something I had forgotten (although whenever I drive past his house I still think 'aah, that's where Neil lived'). As I went through the box, I came across cards (for all sorts of occasions) that I had signed from 'me and Neil xxx'. I'd even sent my Mother a Mother's Day card from the two of us.
Yet my family claimed the whole gay thing was a surprise.
I fear they were just being polite.
21 commentaires:
I loved that you wanted to design dresses for the Queen. I think anything might be a help over the frocks she wears. Now her hats...talk about tradition and being a lady all wrapped into one.
I have always envied her her gowns though. All those jewel encrusted trailing miles of shiny cloth. I imagine gold or silver slippers underneath it all - and perhaps a catheter. What do you think?
(you've told me before how surprised your family was. I think they just wanted to avoid the obvious....as families do)
Honey, please! I thought you were referring to me when You mentioned the Queen.
You were a good writer even then! I had some diaries from when I was growing up, but I read them in my twenties and was so horrified with my adolescent whinings that I actually burned them.
Babycham, Pomagne - you don't get harmless drinks like that nowadays, it's 30% industrial alcohol with food colouring for kids these days.
What a great post! It made me chuckle, I got married Jubilee weekend and even though you were watching scottish dancing that same week, I still cannot gauge how old you were, do you still like scottish dancers?! :)
Aims, I also imagine fancy shoes, but it takes a special mind to think up 'catheter'....
I'm also not that keen on designing for her these days. it's enough trouble thinking about what I'm wearing, let alone anyone else!
Lewis, of course I was sweetie. Who else could it possibly be?
Lola, the writing was fine - but the accompanying drawings were like something that a junior serial killer would produce....
Softy, I was 7 years old at the time. Too young to be thinking about how nice the scottish dancing boys were in their shorts....
And no, I'm not a fan of scottish dancing any more - apart from Matthew Bourne's 'Highland Fling', of course....
Yeah, so many years later mom said, Oh I knew when you were 3 and you always wanted to wear my shoes and carry my purse. What!? I have no memory of this, but why was it such hell then dealing with the reaction. Ah well, water under the bridge.
So sweet. And where is that Neil today?
half a pint of Pomagne and Babycham and you were 7!!! An early party animal.
I remember the Jubilee well. I wore a Union Jack headscarf and I was not 7! And just two years later I tried to be punk. I think there was some change in those two years:-)
oh that is PRICELESS.
i wish i still had my scribblings from when i was a kid...
They didn't realise you were gay - after half a pint of Pomagne with Neil?
Ah bless.
I met TS on Jubilee day. He was completely drunk at the bus stop and couldn't remember where he lived. God that was a long time ago!
Torny, it's an odd one isn't it? I'm guessing with each generation it gets easier.
Amy, no idea - last I heard he was studying floristry. No joke, he really was!
Lane, they were special times - boundaries were pushed and norms were shifted much further than they ever are these days....
CG - I'm guessing your scribblings would be hilarious....
SM - I know! Why oh why? I think my Mom was too caught up in church and dad wasn't that interested! That sounds far more tragic than it actually was.....
Breezy - It WAS a long time ago. I'm upset to think that I was 7 all those years ago! Goodness, it's flown by, no?
Ben, you got me.
I dreamt about you last night.
I dreamt that you were writing for the Telegraph. Your memoirs were one of the suppliments with watercolour illustrations. In my dream I was showing the articles to people saying "I know him"
ps. A picture of me simulating fellatio on my other blog:
http://2000lies.blogspot.com
I bet you can't resist.
Stew, how weird. I'd find it quite strange if the Telegraph appreciated my work - I'm thinking that Telegraph readers aren't target audience, but hey, this is a wide church.....
And as for the auto-fellatio, shame on you. I DID go and have a look. I found it quite the erotic delight.
Dirty boy.
I wish you had designed some dresses for her .. she always looks so fuddy duddy ...
And I am not sure it wasnt really a surprise ... even if they suspected they were likely sure it was a phase ...
I also dont know how I managed to miss of you posts ... sigh, I hope my forgetfulness is only a phase.
:-Daryl
Daryl, she's a fashion disaster.
If only the Australian police hadn't intervened, and I had indeed crashed my car head-on into her procession then I may well have been able to adress the situation directly with her.....
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