A brief thing. I wrote a second article for The Northwest Indiana times covering the excitement for the wedding right up to the procession. It's not available online, so I'm putting up what I wrote here.
Kass Stone
Times Correspondent
London – The celebration of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding has been building for weeks.
On Wednesday afternoon, the children of Plumstead Manor Nursery (located on London’s South East side) celebrated the royal nuptials with a wedding party in William and Kate’s honor. The little girls came dressed in their best princess dresses and the boys came bedecked in their finest suits. They made royalty themed arts and crafts, ate wedding cake, danced and waved their Union Jacks proudly in honor of the prince and new princess.
Plumstead Manor Nursery treasurer Jean Reader is a lifelong fan of the monarchy. In her late 70s, Reader was one of the hundreds of thousands of people that cheered Queen Elizabeth’s coronation procession in 1953. For her, the wedding and community events like the nursery party are important for British society.
“If you look around, there are a lot of different nationalities living here and this helps make it all gel,” said Reader. “After all, we do have a monarchy and we should celebrate it. We are here to wave the flag.”
Crown Point natives Chris and Lisa Westworth had planned to be amongst the throng of people cheering on the royal wedding procession. Their plans had to change when Lisa gave birth to their son, Cayden, several weeks early. They are now content to watch the ceremony from the comfort of their home in the West London neighborhood of Chiswick.
“I just like the fact that we live in London while everyone is so obsessed about this wedding and that one day we can tell our son that we lived here when King William and Queen Kate were married. It is kind of exciting,” said Lisa Westworth.
Amongst the carnival atmosphere of vendors and celebrants in Trafalgar Square early Friday morning, just outside the route the wedding procession will take from Buckingham Palace along The Mall to Westminster Abbey, were Canadians Amy Beckham and Brenda Hooton. The two traveled from their home in Niagra Falls, Ontario to celebrate the wedding in London.
“We’re here because I think there is so much bad news in the world and this is an opportunity to be happy and just have a good time,” said Beckham. “Besides, we share the royal family. She’s our queen too. She’s on our money too.”
On The Mall, seeking a place to witness the procession, were Mark Abella and Mandy Yoxall of Sydney, Australia.
“It’s our heritage. They’re our royal family too. It’s a once in a life time opportunity for us. We’re not going to get to experience this again, seeing a king married,” said Yoxall. “I mean, Prince Harry will probably get married, but he’s not going to be king.”
Showing posts with label The Northwest Indiana Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Northwest Indiana Times. Show all posts
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Royal Wedding Part 2: Journo-ism.
Here is the my story previewing the royal wedding. The point of the story was that most people here in London are rather indifferent, at best, about the royals. Unfortunately, the teeth were totally removed and the story feels a bit pointless. I like the folks at The Northwest Indiana Times. They're lovely, hard working people who have to make decisions I hate. I get it. Every writer hates seeing their stuff get cut up. Luckily we live in an age of technological wonders. I now present for your edification the unedited version of my story.
Kass Stone
Times Correspondent
London – Not everyone in Britain is going gaga over the royal wedding. While international media coverage of the upcoming nuptials of “Wills and Kate” may make it seem like all of the UK is about to explode into a patriotic fervor over the ceremony, the truth for the majority of people is quite the opposite.
In the small working class neighborhood of Plumstead, located on London’s Southeast side, far from the pomp and circumstance of Westminster Abbey, most people show very little interest in the wedding.
“I couldn’t really care less,” said Plumstead’s Kirsty Bennett, when asked what she thought of the wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The actress and mother of three does not find the fact that day of the wedding is a national holiday pleasing. The wedding is taking place less than a week after the UK’s children have returned from their four day Easter holiday, which continued directly on from a two week “half term” break. The day off for the wedding and the following Monday, along with the time already out of class, means that Britain’s children will have spent only about 9 days total in school for the month of April. This is a long time to have to find ways to entertain three young, rambunctious sons.
“Oh, I don’t care for it,” said Bennett, about the national holiday aspect of the wedding. “The boys have not been in school for ages. I can’t believe the kids are never in school. It’s absolutely mad. I love my children to death, but I need a break!”
Crown Point native’s Chris and Lisa Westworth have noticed a definite lack of royalist enthusiasm amongst their friends and neighbors in the West London neighborhood of Chiswick. The two former Crown Point High School Bulldogs are a bit surprised to find their fellow Americans more excited about William and Kate’s big day than their British cousins.
“For most of my British friends, for them it’s an excuse to have street parties and to have the day off,” said Lisa Westworth. “I think there is more excitement for the wedding in the United States than there is here.”
Lisa is following the coverage of the wedding in the buildup to Friday’s ceremony and finds Prince William and Kate Middleton quite likeable, but she has no delusions about the moral superiority of the members of the House of Windsor.
“I can kind of relate to them,” said Lisa Westworth, about the royal couple. “They are a young couple, like us, and they seem to really be in love with each other. But we all know that Prince Charles was a real scumbag and was cheating on Princess Diana the night before their wedding. But I guess William and Kate seem different. We don’t know though.”
U.S. singles are more likely than Brits to watch the royal wedding.
• 40% of U.S. singles say they plan to watch the royal wedding on TV, whereas only 31% of single Brits say they plan to tune in.
- From Zoosk Royal Wedding Survey.
Kass Stone
Times Correspondent
London – Not everyone in Britain is going gaga over the royal wedding. While international media coverage of the upcoming nuptials of “Wills and Kate” may make it seem like all of the UK is about to explode into a patriotic fervor over the ceremony, the truth for the majority of people is quite the opposite.
In the small working class neighborhood of Plumstead, located on London’s Southeast side, far from the pomp and circumstance of Westminster Abbey, most people show very little interest in the wedding.
“I couldn’t really care less,” said Plumstead’s Kirsty Bennett, when asked what she thought of the wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The actress and mother of three does not find the fact that day of the wedding is a national holiday pleasing. The wedding is taking place less than a week after the UK’s children have returned from their four day Easter holiday, which continued directly on from a two week “half term” break. The day off for the wedding and the following Monday, along with the time already out of class, means that Britain’s children will have spent only about 9 days total in school for the month of April. This is a long time to have to find ways to entertain three young, rambunctious sons.
“Oh, I don’t care for it,” said Bennett, about the national holiday aspect of the wedding. “The boys have not been in school for ages. I can’t believe the kids are never in school. It’s absolutely mad. I love my children to death, but I need a break!”
Crown Point native’s Chris and Lisa Westworth have noticed a definite lack of royalist enthusiasm amongst their friends and neighbors in the West London neighborhood of Chiswick. The two former Crown Point High School Bulldogs are a bit surprised to find their fellow Americans more excited about William and Kate’s big day than their British cousins.
“For most of my British friends, for them it’s an excuse to have street parties and to have the day off,” said Lisa Westworth. “I think there is more excitement for the wedding in the United States than there is here.”
Lisa is following the coverage of the wedding in the buildup to Friday’s ceremony and finds Prince William and Kate Middleton quite likeable, but she has no delusions about the moral superiority of the members of the House of Windsor.
“I can kind of relate to them,” said Lisa Westworth, about the royal couple. “They are a young couple, like us, and they seem to really be in love with each other. But we all know that Prince Charles was a real scumbag and was cheating on Princess Diana the night before their wedding. But I guess William and Kate seem different. We don’t know though.”
U.S. singles are more likely than Brits to watch the royal wedding.
• 40% of U.S. singles say they plan to watch the royal wedding on TV, whereas only 31% of single Brits say they plan to tune in.
- From Zoosk Royal Wedding Survey.
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