The Queen Comes To Town

It was the biggest news to hit Virginia in months: the Queen of England was coming to Richmond to speak to the Virginia General Assembly at the state capitol downtown. The excitement took over the city.The Queen...wow. She would be speaking mainly about the influence of Jamestown, which celebrated its 400th anniversary that year, another big news story, and also about the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Her visitcreated a media storm. Radio presenters were talking about it, news reporters on TV were talking about it, the people of Richmond were talking about it, and it was on the front page of every local newpaper fora month. It was the first time she had visited Virginia in decades. It was all I heard about. This was huge. The Queen's visit to the capitol would include great festivities on the capitol grounds: circus performers, speeches, bands - culminating in her walk around the grounds greeting the twothousand or so who would be there. It was open to the public. The lucky ones had to arrive early though, because the state police were closing the grounds at 2. It was predicted thattraffic would be complete madness and the newspaper advised not to even go downtown at all from the hours of 11 to 2.

The newspapers told us that seeing the Queen was an experience not be missed. It was something to tell your grandchildren about. It was the only chance most of us would have in our lifetimes to see her.

I had to work on that day, but I got off at 1, and I decided I had to do it. I would ride the bus downtown and go to the capitol. I wasnt sure the buses were running there, but apparently they were. I wasnt planning to go downtown that day. I decided at work that I was.

The bus did go downtown, but it was taking a diversion from the route at 11th. I got off at the Library Of Virginia stop. The traffic wasnt bad at all. It looked like a normal day in Richmond. According to my watch the Queen was doing her walk NOW and if I didnt hurry I would miss it. I took off down the street, tripped and fell and ripped my pants at the knee. That was smart. Now my knee was bleeding too.

I went to the capitol, located on 10th. I wasnt allowed in, no surprise. I heard music blaring from inside, and it was this song.Through the fence I saw hundreds of people and I tried to get a glimpse of anything but that was near impossible, especially since the police were telling the crowd to move on. I saw a group of people looking through the fence with cameras andpointing. I asked them if they could see anything. A lady pointed out the woman projected onto a big screen with the purple hat and pink coat. That was the Queen. I could see her. But I was so far away and the police were still bugging us to leave.

What a letdown. Total waste of a trip downtown. Then I went to the record store. I told my mentor, the owner,about it and she said I should send a nasty email to the state police.

That song always takes me back though.