Street Parties New And Old

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussion' started by shiney, Apr 12, 2011.

  1. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    Are you going to have a street party for the Royal Wedding?

    I don't remember much about Charles and Di's wedding and the street parties that went on then but I understand there were quite a lot.

    I do remember quite clearly the street parties for the coronation. Our street party was a wonderful event :dbgrtmb:

    The whole road had bunting strung from the trees all the way down both sides (we had about 60 houses on each side of the road) and lots of houses were flying large Union Flags and Royal Standards. There were loads of trestle tables laden with food and tarpaulins strung across above them to keep the rain off.

    I don't remember it raining heavily but there was intermittent rain and the occasional bright sunshine. Lots of the houses had radios at open windows and they were switched on at 11 a.m. for the report and details of the wedding.

    The adults listened and most of the children played games in the street. The main game played was rounders using a soft ball. After the coronation the celebrations started with everyone tucking into the food. That was followed by organised races. There were a few normal races, mainly 100 yds, but more of the fun races like the three legged race, sack race and egg and spoon race. The races were first for the children and then for the adults.

    There were some record players put out on the pavement and the adults danced to the Big Band records. My father had managed to buy a secondhand cabinet record player and do it up for the event. It was an HMV cabinet about 4ft high with a black lacquered outside inlaid with Japanese scenes. The lid hinged upwards and was held in place with a metal hinged bracket. On the inside of the lid was was the HMV emblem of Nipper the dog listening to a phonograph. Inside the top was the turntable with a heavy metal playing arm hinged in two places and it required a short pointed piece of metal to be inserted in the tip to act as the stylus.

    The bottom half of the cabinet was the cupboard to store the old 78 and 80 speed records - I've still got some of them in my cupboard :thumb:. Above the cupboard were two more doors that could be opened to allow the volume to increase. The player had to be wound up with crank arm for each record.

    I don't know how many street parties were held that day but I understand that there were over 2 million people lining the route of the Coronation carriage.

    Do you have any memories of the day?
     
  2. Fidgetsmum

    Fidgetsmum Total Gardener

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    I'm afraid the coronation was before my time, although for Charles and Di's wedding our road (a cul de sac), decided to hold a 'street party'.

    For weeks 'they' were talking about it, people kept holding meetings and it was decided to apply to have the road closed for the event, then, since no-one except residents came into our cul-de-sac that seemed a bit OTT, so they made their own 'Street party in progress' signs. By the time they got around to thinking about bunting, the shops had all sold out so there then followed a steady stream of people knocking on the door asking if we had any or failing that, bits of red, white and/or blue fabric with which to make it, or better still, would you actually make it. For days they sewed, going out every few hours to see if it was long enough yet - it never quite seemed to be!

    After that there were pleas to cook or make a food contribution, oh and did we have a pasting table and or chairs they could borrow, as well as table cloths, cutlery and crockery and so it went on.

    Come 'the big day' and those who were heavily into it (as the saying goes), were out there at the crack of dawn. Pasting tables were set up - and rocked alarmingly; chairs were placed - all of differing heights; tablecloths were spread - and promptly blew off; cutlery was placed - and got covered in dust; balloons were blown up - and promptly burst or blew away. 'Men' went up ladders, tying long lengths of string onto the ends of bunting still too short to reach across the 'turning circle' at the end of the road

    With the wedding over, figures began to appear bringing and arranging food. Two 'ghetto blasters' were strategically placed either side of the road, both running the same tape although despite much concentrated fiddling, it proved impossible to get them to run in-synch with one another and, at length, the children were allowed out. All 11 of them! I have a couple of photos I took from an upstairs window, it shows 11 very bored looking children and 32 very excited adults, all rushing round taking photos and trying to get the children interested. After 20 minutes it was all over, everyone disappeared back inside and that was pretty much that .... except by next morning one of the knots holding the bunting in place had come undone, it wrapped itself around some of the highest branches in the trees and stayed there, looking very bedraggled, for several months until it too, finally disappeared.

    I doubt very much if our current road will have a street party - they're nearly all retired and their idea of 'excitment' is to have a second glass of sherry (but only at Christmas!).
     
  3. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    What, every Christmas????? :loll: :loll: :loll:
     
  4. clare

    clare Gardener

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    I can't imagine it will be quite the same these days. The UK has changed so that not so many people know their neighbours anymore, and I just can't imagine the same sort of atmosphere being achieved :-(

    Let's hope I'm wrong.
     
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