It was sixty years ago today

[durham_rambler]

(shewhomust has heard this so often, I suggest she reads no further.)

Sixty years ago I was nearly five and my brother nearly two. We lived with our parents in two rooms in a house in Forest Hill (London SE23). That morning my brother had been twiddling the knobs on our wireless (as we called them). A little later when my mother turned on the radio she could not get it to play. We blamed my brother for breaking it.

It was only in the late afternoon when my father returned from work that we learned that the King had died and that consequently the BBC was not broadcasting except for the scheduled news bulletins.

Comments

[helenraven.livejournal.com]

A top-quality anecdote! Thank you.

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

And thank you.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

On the radio this morning they replayed the original wireless announcement that nothing more would be played on the wireless. Which still seems an utterly weird reaction, even after I've been thinking about it all day. I get the two-minute silence, but hours and hours? Hadn't they heard of Solemn Music? (When I used to be in and out of the local BBC radio station, the room we waited in had a tape of Solemn Music on a shelf, labelled thus, and you did just know it was there in anticipation of the Queen Mum's death...)

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the reminiscence. Fascinating. I wonder with desperance: why not Solemn Music? As your mother's response showed, Silence didn't work properly and doubtless led to some impious Twiddling and Swearing.

Nine

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Twiddling, yes.
Swearing? Definitely not.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I was (by then) thinking of the entire BBC listenership. Not in your household, certainly; but there are Rougher Elements out there.

Nine