Elements of history
History is happening all the time. Sometimes it comes in spurts. Sometimes it occurs with a long period of time elapsing between events. But the events are connected. The Australian People are currently celebrating the birth of a Princess of Australia. Is Princess Charlotte a Princess of Australia? If not – why not. If we are to be a monarchy why cannot we call the Royal Family our own? I have witnessed the Royal Family involved in an historic event only a few times. But they have been historic and in their way they have been long lasting. In 1954 Queen Elizabeth the 2nd and her husband came to Australia. This was a big thing in Australia. The Australian people were quickly overcome by a type of mass hysteria. Fully two thirds of the whole population turned out to see her. Australia is a country of large distances. Distance is to Australia what mountains are to Switzerland. Travel is measured in distances of days or even weeks. But the tyranny of distance did not deter the Australian people. It is said that fully two thirds came to see her but my estimate is that it was more than two thirds. I have never heard of anyone who did not see the Queen. Even hospital patients were wheeled out to see her. I saw her in the Benalla showgrounds. I was taken along with the rest of my school in a cattle truck from the Meadow Creek State School. There were approx. 20 students in the school and we all had to assemble early in the morning at our school. We were given a cardboard lanyard which had a medal attached to it. Our parents had to write our name on the lanyard. My father had especially good copper plate writing. We had to wear the lanyard on our chest. It was attached to my shirt with a pin. We all climbed onto the cattle truck and off we went. The Queen was due in Benalla sometime during the morning. We arrived at the Benalla showgrounds early and assembled in the designated spot. We waited some hours. Finally the announcement was made that the Queen was arriving. Then the announcement was made that the Royal Party was about to enter the showgrounds. Then the announcement was made that the Royal Party was entering the showgrounds. What happened then was puzzling and disappointing. The Queen and Prince Phillip drove past fairly quickly. It was all over in seconds. She was not looking at anything. She was kind of leaning back in her seat, sitting as far down as far as she could. She was staring straight ahead, looking slightly up in the air as she laid back as far as she could go in her seat. She had a very blank look on her face. She may have even looked unhappy. She looked pretty well completely disinterested. She was certainly not taking anything in. She seemed to be asking when can we get this over with? She had one arm bent at the elbow but slightly up in the air and she was making circles with one finger. She was waving her hand around in a circle with her first finger extended. Much later I learned that this was the wave her father had taught her to do when she was tired of waving. He invented it. I think she has stopped doing it. I hope she has because it did not give a good impression. She was never filmed doing it but I saw it. The Prince however was waving to children. His wave was the wave you do when you wave to children. Little movement of individual fingers. He was making eye contact with individual children. He was even saying things – Hullo – I guess. His lips were moving. She however was simply staring into nothingness. I’m not going to look at anything was what she appeared to be saying. She even looked a little angry. What I concluded was that she was not interested and she was not above having female human traits. Normal female traits and not very attractive at that. She was acting as any female would. I had been trained to always scan the female face to check for unhappiness and her face was meaningful. Her attitude made me feel I was imposing on her. Should I have been there? What were we all doing there? The second time I saw the Queen was a pure accident. I had not meant to see her. I was in London and passing over the Mall late one afternoon going somewhere else and I encountered large numbers of people. I remembered that this was the day when The Trooping of the Colour was held but it must have been finished because everyone was walking home. There were a large number of mounted soldiers walking their horses back towards Buckingham Palace. Suddenly there was a traffic jam and the horses came to a complete stop. The barriers that kept people off the road were already being packed up and taken from the road and I was walking where the barriers had recently been – off the sidewalk - on the road. When the horses stopped I looked up and there was the Queen. About 3 metres away from me. She acted like anyone else in a traffic jam. She stood up in her saddle to try and see what was causing the holdup. She had a disturbed even annoyed look on her face. When she realized that she would not move for a while – and I suppose realized that she was standing trapped in close proximity to the public she sat down as low as she could in her saddle and put a neutral look on her face. There must have been others who recognized the Queen but no one made it plain that they did or changed what they were doing. Absolutely no one else stopped to stare at her – not like I did. I looked her straight in the eye. I was close enough to do this. And she did look at me fair in the eye for possibly one second. But only one second. I wanted her to keep returning my look and for us to communicate silently. Being close enough to look her in the eye I wanted her to return my gaze. Straight into my eye. I wanted her to understand that I recognized she was a human and it was all right. I wanted to convey she was OK. She was just like me. We had things in common. We could communicate with each other human to human. Without speaking. Just by looking. Regretfully she did not return my greeting again. She kept her neutral look staring straight ahead. Even though I’m sure she could see what I wanted her to do. I felt sure she immediately understood my intention but she didn’t want to communicate with me – even silently. After 90 seconds or so the horse traffic jam cleared and they all walked off. But this was a long 90 seconds. One thing that struck me was how small she was. What I concluded was that I experienced that invisible barrier that separates class from class. Royalty from subjects. Human from human. There is no communication when one body does not want to have communication with the other. What happens when one party looks the other way? I reluctantly concluded that the Royal Family do not want communication. I felt a little disappointed at her attitude. My third experience with Royalty where something occurred to make a real difference was at the funeral of Lady Diana Spencer. I watched it on TV. Lady Diana’s brother – the Earl Spencer - made a speech that changed history. The Queen was forced to sit and listen to him haranguing everyone - but he especially harangued the Queen at length - without mentioning her specifically of course - mostly about the abominable behavior that Lady Diana had been subjected to by the Royal Family. He went on for quite a while and the Queen was forced to listen. Her body language showed that she felt very uneasy. It was in fact the first time she had ever been criticized in public and be made to listen to it. The Queen almost seemed to shrink into the floor. I myself was shocked at what was happening. But I realized it was quite proper what he was saying. It had to be said – the Earl was quite correct. The whole world watched in stunned silence. It didn’t matter that we felt sorry for the Queen. Things had suddenly changed forever. It didn’t matter what the Royal Family and the rest of the establishment felt. We could see what they felt by looking at certain other members of the Royal Family. Watching Prince Philipp’s body language there was no mistaking what he felt - he gave the firm impression of saying you can all go to hell! – the quicker the better. He was his usual belligerent self. Watching Princess Anne’s body language was even more explicit. There was no mistaking her feelings. Their body language summed up Royalty’s attitude up to this point - but the public had definitely shown by all the flowers that hangers on Royalty type people did not matter anymore. And that Royalty had to start and do things differently. In the course of his speech Earl Spencer said that if his side of the family were to have anything to do with the bringing up of the two Princes changes would be made. They would not be totally influenced by the Royal Family. They would have human values installed in them. This has proved to be. The two Princes are exceptional examples of what changes have occurred within the Royal Family. Change can happen and it can be good. Both Princes are exceptionally good role models. They have substance. They are due real respect. They have abandoned the affected royal accent. They speak with common sense in the way ordinary normal people do. And they can talk to people. They can look ordinary people in the eye. And they do. This is a profound change.
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