Ellen Wieting
Who lived in Detroit at the time of the Coronation and wrote this to her daughter, Claire Bennett, who now lives in Steventon.
The Coronation was on June 2nd 1953 so I was almost 7 and your dad was almost 8. We both watched it on TV, I know I thought it was wonderful. Of course it was in black and white and everyone was talking about it. It was a Tuesday so I don’t know when we saw the broadcast.
I also remember seeing Elizabeth’s speech in Canada when she came for a visit. I think that was a live broadcast which we would have gotten from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Co).
Dad said he was listening to classical music then and I liked my sing-a-long records and the pop standards that were playing on the car radio that my dad liked; Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, but I would only hear them when we were driving. We both watched the Lone Ranger, Captain Video and Howdy Doody.
We had a 1950 green 2-door coupe and your dad a 1950 Oldsmobile. We both did air raid drills in school, going down to the school basement or getting under
our desks. The threat of nuclear war was on everyone’s minds.
Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower was elected president that year so there was a campaign going on. His slogan was “I like Ike”.
