jean
jean

I wonder if there is anyone on Micro.blog who remembers the world before Queen Elizabeth II. I would love to know.

(Maybe my dad @bobmacd will chime in…)

|
Embed
Munish
Munish

@jean that would be truly amazing

|
Embed
In reply to
cliffordbeshers
cliffordbeshers

@jean I grew up in the New York City area. The QE II ocean liner was a fixture of my childhood. So, she already had an ocean liner named after her.

|
Embed
odd
odd

@cliffordbeshers About the first one:

The wreck was featured in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, as a covert headquarters for MI6.

(Wikipedia)

|
Embed
odd
odd

@odd Somehow I had it in my head that this was in James Bond in Japan, starring Sean Connery…

|
Embed
cliffordbeshers
cliffordbeshers

@odd so it was. I had forgotten that. Brilliant scene, all tilted like that.

I am now wondering if that ship was named after her mother.

|
Embed
cliffordbeshers
cliffordbeshers

@odd The gag there was the secret trains used by “tiger”.

|
Embed
odd
odd

@cliffordbeshers But didn’t Sean have a fake funeral at sea in the Hong Kong harbor, only to be recovered and taken inside the slanted ship? Was that Roger?

|
Embed
cliffordbeshers
cliffordbeshers

@odd You Only Live Twice.

|
Embed
cliffordbeshers
cliffordbeshers

@cliffordbeshers In MwtGG, he "escapes" from the HK police by jumping from their boat to the QE wreck, but it turns out to be another agent who arranges it.

|
Embed
odd
odd

@cliffordbeshers I forget, in Norway You Only Live Twice got the title “James Bond i Japan”. I don’t know who exactly does this, but there is, (at least used to be), some people whose job it was to make Norwegian titles where they saw necessary.

|
Embed
odd
odd

@cliffordbeshers Ok. I’ve forgotten so much of those movies. Some for the good, probably.

|
Embed
jean
jean

@cliffordbeshers Yes! When we were kids, our parents took us to see the QE2 in port in Fort Lauderdale. It was a BIG deal.

|
Embed
jeremycherfas
jeremycherfas

@jean I was alive, but have no memories.

|
Embed
Ron
Ron

@jean In the 1940's we were living in Galesburg, IL, my birthplace, as well as that of the great Carl Sandburg. Ronald Reagan had also lived there decades earlier. Our life was centered around the First Christian Church, a church Reagan could have easily attended when he was a kid there.

My first starring role came as a singer in the children's choir, which was led by the much loved Dr. Sykes who sat at the organ console and directed the choir while playing the organ from there. The choir was on the stage behind the organ. But for my starring performance I was standing in the opposite direction near the back of the church in the front of the balcony. I was one of the kings featured in We Three Kings, but I don't remember which one. It was surely a Christmas time service, hence the decision to feature the stars in the choir. Dr. Sykes had asked me to sing to the people in the farthest corner of the church, which I did, really belting it out. It was a high point in my early life.

They had outfitted us with white robes tied in the middle of the front with giant red bows. It was okay for the girls in the choir, but I thought very inappropriate for the boys, especially those with solos to sing. I would have preferred to have wrapped the robe with my leather belt holding my holster and cap gun, but no one ever asked for my fashion advice.

On the drive home after church, my father always stopped at the store to buy a copy of the Sunday St. Louis Post Dispatch, the really big thick one of the week. I liked to read the many colored pages of the comics. And if I was really lucky there might also be a picture in the sports section of my friend, Stan the Man Musial.

|
Embed
Ron
Ron

@jean In Nov 1952 we moved to Decatur because my dad had been transferred to the new home office of the Illinois Power Company where he worked.

That was the first major crisis in my life. I would lose all my friends at church and at school, to move somewhere where I knew no one at all. It scared me, a LOT. My brother and I tried to talk our parents out of the idea, but to no avail. We were both very happy in Galesburg. Why change anything when everything was going so well there? It seemed so unfair and unnecessary.

It was definitely the most shocking thing that had ever happened in our lives. I suppose our dad had gotten a big raise, but money meant nothing at all to my brother and I. Neither of us had any money, nor any need for money.

I never again felt as safe and at home as I had felt in Galesburg. But of course we soon had a new home, school and church. We got over it.
🏡

|
Embed
jean
jean

@Ron I think these replies would make a good blog post, where everyone would see them, not just me.

|
Embed
Ron
Ron

@jean I guess I don't know how to do that. I thought anyone could read anything I posted anywhere on microblog.

Maybe life has gotten too complicated for me. 8-(

|
Embed
SimonWoods
SimonWoods

@Ron Ron, you made a new post two weeks ago: here. Those replies of yours would be similarly available on your blog, as their own posts. Seems like a good idea to me!

|
Embed
Ron
Ron

@SimonWoods But @Jean was the one who asked to hear about life before Elizabeth was crowned, so I was trying to give her what she asked for. So I was trying to keep it on her thread.

I'm not keeping up well with new technology. I like to have some human contact at times, but realize there are rules for even an old guy to follow.

Thanks for being a friend, Simon! 🙏

|
Embed
jean
jean

@Ron Hey Ron, it’s not a rule, just a suggestion. I understand what you mean about threading. You can write a longer post on your own microblog in response to someone else’s post and post a link to it in the thread.

|
Embed
Ron
Ron

@jean Okay. thanks for the suggestion. I've been trying to keep things simple, but now I have been considering a series, My Life Before QE2. I would certainly have the topic to myself. So not a bad idea.

But right now I'm in maximum stress with tax work, so I'll have to attend to that first.

I actually do have memories about the 1940's and early 50's. My generation blossomed in the 60's, but there may be things worth learning about before that, before many here were even born into this lifetime.

|
Embed
jean
jean

@Ron What prompted me to make the original comment is the number of people blogging about how she had been the queen their entire lives. That's true for me too, and I'm eligible for senior citizen discounts! Prince Andrew and I were born the same year.

|
Embed
Ron
Ron

@jean I was a month short of eight years old when she was crowned. My family was living in Decatur then, which has also been my wife and my home since 2017, after I had spent 50 years residing in California. We watched her crowning on live b&w TV, quite lovely. 👑

Now I'm the oldest I've ever been in my entire life. My father passed in his 101st year in his bed at my brother's house in Monterey, having just thanked my wife for her service to him. It was within one day of when the great Thai king, Rama IX, passed. He had served the longest term as a royal in the world at the time and was much revered by his people for his devoted care for his people. ❤

|
Embed
Munish
Munish

@odd @cliffordbeshers I thought the same thing. The one in Japan

|
Embed