And so what are we left with when it comes to blogging?
I thought I might use this opportunity to capture a memory from long ago in written words. Arguably, memories are the means by which we mark our presence upon this spinning planet. Here we go.
I am sixteen years old and I have been chosen to represent East Yorkshire youth clubs at a special reception in St James's Palace in London. It is to mark sixty years of youth clubs in England and Wales - under the auspices of The National Association of Youth Clubs.
Before the main event, I get to meet the pop singer Lulu, Lord John Hunt who led the successful Mount Everest expedition in 1953 and the famous DJ and TV presenter Jimmy Savile. He jokes that it is nice to have another Yorkshire lad down there in London and we shake hands. Retrospectively, it seems most distasteful that he was a patron of The National Association of Youth Clubs but back in 1971 nobody realised the true nature of that self-obsessed sex monster.
I visit a lavatory in St James's Palace and it is like no lavatory I have ever been in before. The Victorian toilet bowl is like a throne on a kind of platform and there are lotions and potions and soft white towels for hand cleaning.
On to the main event where there is a finger buffet with china teacups and strict instructions about where we should all stand before The Queen Mother drifts into the room with her little entourage.
She was Queen Elizabeth II's mother and formerly the wife of King George VI who came to the throne by default when King Edward VIII abdicated.
She reaches me and puts out a gloved hand, smiling with her little brown teeth on display. She would have been my current age (71) that afternoon but she seemed older. She asks me where I am from and then she asks me if I know Hotham Hall where she enjoyed some happy times when she was a child but I don't know the place. She is most charming and soon moves on to the next youth club member - representing a different county.
I find my way back to Kings Cross Station and catch an evening train back to Hull. Looking back, I think I must have had some balls back then to negotiate the London transport system at the age of sixteen when I was a country bumpkin. Stuff like that did not faze me at all.
That is an amazing experience to have at age 16.
ReplyDeleteI guess it was but at the time I took nit in my stride.
DeleteCurious about the QM's "little brown teeth." Was that an observation you made at the time or is it a retrospective one?
ReplyDeleteIt was an observation I made at the time. Unlike some people with bad teeth, she revealed hers naturally. The teeth were made more horrid by the contrast with her white-powdered face.
DeleteGreat experience in youth club to met the Queen but on the other hand there was a vile character waiting to molest boys.
ReplyDeleteActually, Savile mostly molested girls.
DeleteYou shook hands with and spoke to the Queen Mother?? I am so very envious. What an experience.
ReplyDeleteShe should have knighted me there and then... "Arise Sir Pudding!"
DeleteThank you for sharing this particular memory. I guess at 16, most of us are either a bundle of insecurities (such as myself, wearing glasses and having no bosom to write home about) or we feel like nothing can happen to us, invincible and immortal. You clearly fell into the latter category.
ReplyDeleteI was a mixture of both.
DeleteQuite an experience, I hope you didn't make a mess of that posh loo?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I didn't see a bog brush.
DeleteChosen? All of Yorkshire! How? By who?
ReplyDeleteNo. Not all of Yorkshire Tasker - just The East Riding. Chosen by the county committee following nomination. I do not know how many nominations they received but they chose well.
DeleteCan't dig up a memory to compete with that! At 16 I did spend a month in Yorkshire (and a couple of days in London on the way there), but alas the Royal family totally ignored my visit...
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that you were not invited to Buckingham Palace for afternoon tea with our late queen.
DeleteWell intrigued by the Queen Mother's teeth, I supposed she joined her illustrious ancestor Elizabeth 1st who had black teeth from eating too much sugar.
ReplyDeleteI prefer white teeth but not the fake Persil-bright of rich American teeth. Maybe The Queen Mother could have had some false teeth made from horses' gnashers. Would have been a good look... especially at Ascot.
DeleteNever saw the Queen Mum, but I did see Elizabeth II once in the late 1970s, driven by in a Bentley in Winnipeg while I was sitting at a bus stop like the peasant I am, LOL.
ReplyDeleteIt is surprising that The Queen did not stop to offer you a lift.
DeleteA memory that has endured the long, long, passage of time.
ReplyDeleteWhy two "longs" David? They make me seem Victorian.
DeleteI cannot top shaking hands with the Queen Mother, but I must have been a similar age when selected, with 5 others from our school cadet corps, to provide the guard of honour for the Queen Mother when she dedicated the Lady Chapel at our local parish church.
ReplyDeleteThat's good enough Will.
DeleteThat is a very fine memory! Not one that any of us can top, I'm sure! As I recall, the Queen Mother was much beloved.
ReplyDeleteShe was indeed.
DeleteI wouldn't like to travel to London on my own. You were an incredibly brave sixteen year old YP.
ReplyDeleteI also hitch-hiked down to London to see Grand Funk Railroad in Hyde Park.
DeleteThat's quite an honor and I'm sure your family must have been very proud of you, Neil!
ReplyDeleteDon't drink so much at trivia night! Four pints sounds like a lot to me.
Even if I cut out beer the rest of the week I feel that I need those four pints on a Sunday (alcohol 3.8%).
DeleteWhat a great story! I love that you got to meet the Queen Mother AND Lulu! It's pretty impressive that she could whip up a somewhat personalized question, though maybe she asked that of anyone she met from Yorkshire.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 16 I could barely conceive of public transportation, much less try to use it. We just didn't have it where I lived -- it was a car or nothing, and I was just learning to drive at that age. A year or two later I was using the Washington Metro on my own when I visited my grandparents, but there's a big difference between 16 and 18!
You are right - a lot of growing up seems to happen between 16 and 18. The Queen Mother's question was specifically about East Yorkshire, not North or West - but Hotham Hall was about twenty miles from my village.
DeleteI did always wonder, with all the Money and being the Queen and all, why the Brown Teeth, good Dental Work and Oral maintenance even in America is affordable for most of the masses. Even people in 3rd World Countries seem to have better looking Teeth than most people I saw while living in Europe and I never understood that. My own Mom was from North Wales and had bad Teeth that had to be removed prematurely, is it something to do with the Water and the Diet, I just don't know?
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to have met her, to me she was a benign but interesting character
ReplyDelete