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When the Queen Calls, Out Come the Hats and Baubles
The queen made her way along a path cleared through the crowd, shaking hands. Following protocol as ingrained in the British as the ability to view kidney as a food, no one reached out to the monarch. If she put out a white-gloved hand, and only then, it was accepted and gently shaken.
Ben Hancock, 34, stood at the back of the crowd wearing a tall black top hat made of silk, which was noticeably shiny.
  Prince Charles mingles with celebrities Rod Stewart, Penny Lancaster and Brian May at a Buckingham Palace party. (Pool Photo By Jonathan Buckmaster -- Daily Express Via Associated Press) |
"Guinness," he said. "You wipe it with Guinness to keep it shiny. I bet you didn't know that."
Off on the corner of the lawn, which has its own lake and island, the band played a medley of James Bond themes. To the refrain of "Live and Let Die," the queen chatted with Tim MacAndrews, a London magistrate, and his wife, Helen.
"She's gorgeous. She's so warm and lovely," said Helen MacAndrews, clearly star-struck.
"My heart is absolutely beating faster," she said, still flushed beneath her ostrich-feather hat.
"I need a big drink," her husband said.
One of the Yeomen guarding the queen stood nearby. Someone asked him about his red stockings.
"Yes, I'm wearing stockings, I'm sorry to admit," said the Yeoman, a bear of a man standing about 6-foot-4. "The suspenders kill me. But they're ice hockey ones, not black and lacy."
With that, he marched off behind his monarch, who entered the Royal Tea Tent at precisely 5 p.m.
For nearly an hour, the queen mingled with foreign diplomats in the green-and-white striped tent, where a buffet table was set with sandwiches of poached salmon and chive, egg mayonnaise and watercress and, of course, cucumber. The other guests were left to gawk from a line set up about 50 yards away, where Carolyn Wheeler stood happily in the heat.
"This is part of England," Wheeler said. "For people of our generation, it's the way we've grown up. This is our way of life."
At 5:38, the queen walked across the lawn and moved slowly along a row of guests in wheelchairs.
"I felt nervous and sort of afraid coming here today," said Audrey Lynch, 77. "But on meeting her the fear went away. She just seemed like an ordinary grandmother."
Then at 5:55 p.m., right on schedule, Elizabeth disappeared around the corner of her palace.
