As you know, Neil, I've been around a long time and your article opened the doors to a long ago memory. When I was a child my dad bought our first television in the fall of 1951. We spent all winter watching vague shadows moving across a tiny black and white screen. We were in the mountains and reception was barely there. Eventually in the spring of '52, Dad and I climbed the mile or so up the mountain stringing a TV line to an antenna at the top, hoping for better reception.

And it worked, the shadowy figures took form and shape and words could be heard above the static. Of course it was mostly westerns we watched and news that was weeks late getting to us, but we had TV; something not many had during the early 50s in the mountains of southeast Kentucky.

Late that summer we got to watch the coronation of your Queen. I was in heaven. All my little girl life I'd read of princesses and kings and queens and here it was right before my very eyes. To this day I'll never forget the beauty and awe that came with the tiny black and white figures right into my living room. The Coronation of a Queen. Heavenly!

Thank you for the memory, Neil.
Your article is as inspiring as the coronation was 60 years ago and to my eyes, much more colorful than black and white!

Dear Sharon, my mother was a nurse in 1952! On her ward in the Hospital she worked in a rich man was there. As in your case T.V.s were expensive and rare; in the UK as it was after the war and rationing was still in place here they were very rare. This man organized a T,V, to be brought into the ward to watch the Coronation of Princess Elizabeth into H,M Queen, Many people had never seen an orange or a banana, let alone a T.V. and everyone gathered around it to see a beautiful young Princess become our Queen due to the untimely death of her father King George the sixth. An astonishing event an remembered by all, to this day 60 years on.
The rich man in my mothers ward also laid on food for everyone, things that nobody had eaten since 1939 when the war began, and rightly so the Hospital or those well enough had a party to celebrate.
Rationing did not stop in the UK till 1954 as we had nothing but what we could grow or rear, the youngsters should remember that!
I have been in the lucky position to serve Her Majesty and meet her on occasions. During the war despite the risks, Her Majesty was an Ambulance driver, and worked in parts of London that were shattered by the bombing.
Every little girl is Princess and every little boy a Prince Sharon, for each child is a treasure. I know as i do have a daughter and it grieves me I have not seen her apart from Skype since she was two years old, but that is what the Army does when you get separated for so long.
I think this tribute by the gardeners at Hampton Court Palace to Her majesty, is stunning and sums it up.
Also to these fine soldiers, the Chelsea pensioners who allow the flower show to take place, in what is their garden.
Love from England, and thank you for all the hard work on my Article.
Neil.
+ Phoenix.

On the right is the front of Hampton court palace. I put this on as you like architecture, especially some around 1497!

Beautiful, Neil. And your mom had a good experience too.

I corrected my mistake with the years. Guess I forgot how old I am.

And it was a pleasure to work on your article. I don't think I found anything to repair.

Dear Sharon, too much reading Jane Austen when I was young! You are always magical with all Articles, your touch makes them shine, like the crown jewels. There must have been something wrong?
Phoenix has not been going out much lately and I wondered if she was 100%. So off to the animal doctors with her, which is no easy task I can tell you! I found her veterinary card and I was shocked, for she is fourteen years old! Doesn't time fly? Oliver who has a girlfriend and went missing and came back ill, is a shocking eight years old, I thought he was four!
His girlfriend is a silver tabby who is six months old, so he invites her in for dinner, and of course a cuddle on my computer chair! He cannot do anything as both of them have been spayed or "done", he is always inviting other friends in.
I will try to get a picture of his girlfriend as she is a stunner, at six months old.

Neil.
p.s. A bit of Hampton Court Palaces Rose garden, just for you.