#5 1966 London Tidbits

London in the 60's. It was the world city of the decade. Everything revolved around London. Clothing styles (think Twiggy--the ultra-thin model in mini-skirts), music (Beatles!!), business, and construction (there were cranes all over town). While Eric worked each day, and saw London through the eyes of Harris and Sutherland engineer consultants, I walked the streets of London and figured out what Eric should see in the evenings and weekends.
I was learning to knit, so I would sit in St. James Park part of the day and watch the birds and huge variety of ducks (some would sit back in the water and fight with their feet). I would people watch, have conversations with some people and definitely try to avoid others!
Many mornings I would trot over to Buckingham Palace to watch the main changing of the guard which happened very day back then. This would also involve a concert by the military band, and one time I heard a whole concert of Beatles songs. It was fairly easy back then to get positioned to see everything. I knew just where to stand if I preferred being near the horses when they paraded down the street from the stables to the Palace. This made it all the more personal when I heard of the horrible bombing along there years later in 1982. I could not believe anyone would want to bomb those beautiful creatures (or their riders).
I also wandered through stores and anywhere free. The paid entries were saved until Eric was along. I enjoyed Harrod's and Selfridges. Back then, department stores had wonderful dining room restuarants that were about the cheapest place to eat in town. They not only had good food, the tables were set with white linen tablecloths and cloth napkins. I learned to love plaice (fish), but never did like the hard, dried and reconstituted round green things the British called peas! I learned to eat properly, with my fork and knife never leaving my hands (fork held tines downward in my left hand, knife in the right). I even managed the good form of mashing my peas and potatoes on the back of my fork!
London is full of theaters with all manner of plays and musicals. I researched, then Eric and I would buy the absolutely cheapest tickets. Sometimes that meant sitting in "nose bleed" territory in the uppermost balcony. Sometimes that meant SRO tickets. I did not know what that stood for but soon learned--standing room only. You have to be young and broke to want to stand for the whole musical or play! We were both.