I was listening to a bit on Radio One about the Avro Arrow that was hot stuff about a million years ago and it got me meandering down memory lane as one does when one has a fair number of years under one's belt, or hat as the case may be. The Arrow was all the rage in the late fifties and De Havilland employed a lot of people to design and build it. We were all for weapons of mass destruction back then and still are as far as I can see, so the Arrow was putting Canada on the war map and a good time was being had by all. Then Diefenbaker canned it and they are still crying in their soup over in Downsview. Get over it people! We are in the Aquarian Age!
What I wanted to tell you was that the Arrow flew over our house one afternoon and broke the sound barrier while it did. We were very impressed! The boom was a window rattler and the thing was long gone before we had even got our eyes to the sky. Lucky little me to be in Scarborough then.
The other boom I remember was the Thermos factory blowing sky high just as we were sitting down to roast beef and Yorkshire pud. The table lifted off the ground and our dinner with it. My Dad shot off outside convinced that our next door neighbour had driven his car into the side of our house. But no. The factory a mile down the road had blasted itself into oblivion taking a poor watchwoman with it. We watched the flames for ages. Yorkshire pud we could get any time!
I also met the Queen in Scarborough. She was pregnant with Prince Andrew at the time not that we knew. She came to visit us and open the Golden Mile on Eglinton. That was the second time I had seen the Queen. When I first saw her she was a Princess and her train was travelling past the end of our little country road. I sat on my Dad's shoulders and waved my tiny Union Jack at the passing train in the dead of night no less. I was very impressed! I actually saw her a third time as she was getting off the Britannia and walking among the crowds. She was tiny and still is I am sure with blue, blue eyes and beautiful skin. I don't remember anymore about that interlude but that's enough ancient history even for you my devoted followers. God bless your little hearts!
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Well, when I was young Austria was poor. We could not afford our own airplane. We had to fold them out of newspaper and rattle the windows ourselves. All our factories had been either destroyed or dismantled by the Allies so we did not have any explosions either and had to resort to blowing up paper bags. All in all a deprived childhood.
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