I think the best way to explain the extraordinary achievement of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee to Americans is this: Can you imagine if Harry S Truman, who was president during her coronation in 1952, was still on the job in 2022?
I know that idea has a lot of holes in it. For a start, Truman was 68 years old in 1952 so if he was still commander-in-chief, he’d be 138. Also, presidents are elected and the British Royal family isn’t. But my point is, it’s a long time for one person to be head of anything, especially these days.
Being British, I and the vast majority of the British population have only known one monarch in our lifetimes. And like most of her subjects, I’ve neither met Elizabeth II or even seen her in person. But thanks to radio, TV, newspapers, magazines and the internet, I feel I know her as much as she’d like me to, which is just a teeny bit.
The Queen (as we Brits refer to her, not Queen Elizabeth, thank you very much) was born two years after my own mother. She announced her engagement to Prince Philip just two months after my parents married in 1947. I grew up watching her family grow, much like you might watch “The Crown” today, except it was real.
There were endless Royal tours, garden parties, speeches and so much pomp and pageantry. It seemed like almost every day she was off somewhere else in a fancy hat.
The Queen’s appearances were something we all took for granted. We never thought it might be anything but fun for her, even though nowadays I suspect she might have preferred to be at home watching horse racing on TV with a nice cup of tea and a slice of fruit cake.
What was special about the Queen was her sense of duty. She never aired her dirty linen in public (even though she probably never had any thanks to the hoards of servants working day and night to keep it clean). She didn’t complain she was being treated unfairly when she only inherited the crown as the result of her uncle’s abdication. She never said, “Look, Oprah, this is how it is,” in a spiteful attempt to discredit her entire family.
There are, of course, those who hate the idea of monarchy. They think it’s archaic and totally unnecessary. I look forward to seeing it being modernized by the time Prince William succeeds Prince Charles, but my generation thinks they are as much national treasures as the crown jewels.
As Brits celebrate the Jubilee this weekend, events around the country will unite the United Kingdom in a way not normally seen, especially as we haven’t won the World Cup since 1966. Can you imagine Americans lining the streets over here, putting aside sports and politics to ever rally around the same giant cause? No, me neither.
I suppose the nearest we come to it on this side of the pond is celebrating national holidays. On Monday, I enjoyed our annual Memorial Day parade through downtown Naperville. This year’s was especially nice, not only because it meant another step towards normalcy after the early pandemic, but also because it was the first time in recent memory when we weren’t soaked by a heavy rainstorm.
It’s fun to watch the local school bands twirling their batons and tooting their own horns. Flags are held high and veterans are applauded for their service. Children are pulled along in Radio Flyer wagons and vintage cars take to the roads again. The thing I like the most is that it’s a slice of Americana. I imagine you’d have seen pretty much the same kind of thing 70 years ago, although in many ways I think we’re more patriotic today than we were then.
This year, as much as I enjoyed watching the parade pass by in Naperville, I would rather have been in London, jostling with a million other people to get a glimpse of the Queen as she rode down The Mall in her golden carriage. You see, generally we Brits aren’t a flag-waving nation. You might see an England flag during an international soccer tournament, but we don’t have flag poles on our porches.
But for the Jubilee, the whole country will be decked out in red, white and blue. The country pubs will be adorned with bunting and we’ll be at our quirky best.
I’ve already seen photos of our traditional red post boxes adorned with crocheted Jubilee toppers. I’ve seen life-sized Queen cakes covered in royal icing and a knitted version complete with corgi. My granddaughter’s school had a contest to write a new verse for the national anthem, which sadly I, I mean she, didn’t win. All this because of our genuine pride and love for her majesty.
Over more recent years, the Royal family certainly has had it’s share of bad press because, to be honest, who hasn’t? Whether she’s made mistakes or not, the Queen has always, always put her country first and done what she believed, at the time, was best.
Don’t hold your breath for Gayle King’s new one-on-one interview, entitled “Queen Elizabeth – I Should Have Been First,” because it’s not going to happen. Her majesty is going to live out her final days as she’s always done, in dignity and in service, and God bless her for it.
Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved from England to Naperville in 2007.
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