changing of the guard
“They’re changing the guard at Buckingham Palace
Christopher Robin went down with Alice
A face looked out, but it wasn’t the King’s
‘He’s much too busy asigning things,’
Says Alice.”
A.A. Milne
We took our family to London for the week of American Thanksgiving. On our very first morning we all gathered ourselves into two taxis and headed off to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard. Our attempt to see it was aborted by unusually high winds, which not only caused the cancellation of the event, but actually closed all the parks in London. We walked and walked looking for something to do, but everyone in London was likewise out on a Sunday looking for somewhere to go.
The next morning, we started all over again. Our cabs let us off at the Wellington Arch, and we took the long walk down Constitution Hill to the Palace, squeezing our way into a couple of spots by the fence so that the littlest of us could watch, with the rest of us stacked behind arranged by height. The event lasts about an hour. I’d say we made it through about 15 minutes, with children asking me to explain why we were here to watch a glorified marching band concert. Because the “Changing of the Guard” is really the changing of the bands, much more half-time show than military operation.
My only answer, that even made any sense at all, was that it is what you do in London. All these thousands of people showed up to experience the same moment of pomp and pageantry. We didn’t need to stay for the whole thing, but we had to say that we’d done it.
I’m not sure that my grandchildren will remember it at all, except as a memory of the time that we all braved the chilly temperatures to share this moment together. And that isn’t half bad.
“’Do you think the King knows all about me?’
‘Sure to, dear, but it’s time for tea,’
Says Alice.”
Love, Liz
