Diamonds for the Queen

Amidst a double dip recession and with the Olympics a mere two months away, the entire city of London, in fact the whole country and the ones they own, will shut down for a long holiday weekend. Not a Memorial Day three-dayer, but a full-on four day, Friday-Tuesday weekend to celebrate a symbol as much as a woman, the Queen.

Is the Monarchy the story of a dysfunctional family, a cold Queen, a dunce Prince, a beautiful princess killed by a sinister plot.  The only thing I know for sure is, they LOVE their Queen. The Royal Family, the cost, the castles, the embarrassing anachronistic displays may put some people off, but this is their Queen, for many this was their parents' Queen and for most this is their children's Queen and she will be celebrated.

Imagine a figure in America that you'd put on Mount Rushmore.  Whose image might be printed on our money.  Whose birthday we celebrate with a National Holiday.  Now imagine if that person were still alive, walking the streets, making news and impacting the world.

The Queen is a part of England and this Queen in particular, who took the thrown at the young age of 25 and has been a centerpiece of the country since the 1950's.  No other public figure in the world has been around for anywhere near that length.  And even as a Royal, she is only the second to have a Diamond Jubilee, the last one being Queen Victoria during the time of Lincoln.

This week-end there will be Jubilee Parties (Our street is having a Block Fayre of Pimms and Pastries), there are television specials, concerts, horse races and everything British.  Sales of Pimms, bunting and Royal gnomes have gone through the roof, as stores reported selling 1000 miles of bunting and more than 200,000 teacakes.

The high point of the festivities is the Jubilee Pageant when more than 1000 boats will assemble and the Queen and Duke will travel in a Royal Barge down the Thames.  And then on to St. Pauls with a final carriage ride to Buckingham Palace where the Royal Family will appear on the Balcony.

One of the most famous photos of this well-traveled Queen was during her Silver Jubilee in 1977.  That celebration is being remembered with a 100 metre-wide photograph of the Queen and her family on the Buckingham Palace balcony.  (You can see the amazing set up online).  The family looks happy, smiling and waving, and altogether regal.

The picture includes a very young-looking Prince Charles who was just months away from a first meeting with a 16 year-old Diana Spencer.  In the photo Mark Phillips, the Queen's son in law at the time, seems to have just told a joke to his wife.  It would be another eight years before he fathered a child out of wedlock with a New Zealand art teacher.  And prominently displayed in the middle is Earl Mountbatten, an uncle of Prince Phillip, who took a strong interest in Prince Charles, affectionately calling him an "honorary grandson."  Within two years Mountbatten would be assassinated when the Irish Republican Army planted a bomb in his fishing boat.

The Queen is 86 and while it feels like she has been around forever, Churchill was still Prime Minister when her reign began, they know that her day will come.  And so they will celebrate everybody's favorite "granny," because they know their history, not their future.