Transported Tivertonian - Tea Cakes and Wedding Cakes

The Royal Wedding has come and gone, and without a doubt, it was one of the more covered topics on English television for the last few weeks. The ironic part may be – it wasn't covered nearly as much as it was on American television. The news outlets here made a point of showing all the American tourists that were lining the streets outside Westminster Abbey with their stars and stripes flags and t-shirts with Will & Kate's face encircled in sparkley pink hearts. (I swear they also looked for people with the most stereotypical American accents imaginable – think Southern Belle and Jersey Shore girls.) The Neilson Company came out with a graph showing the percent of the news coverage devoted to the wedding. At one point, there was five times more coverage on American news than there was on news in the UK. The BBC interviewed Meredith Vieira about the US news coverage and the senior anchor on BBC gave the English equivalent of a shout-out to those watching in the States on BBC America.

I would have loved to have a full-on American style BBQ for the day. The sun was out, the country had the day off, and alcohol was on sale at every single grocery store and corner shop imaginable. I fantasized about having hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, macaroni salad, a clam boil, some corn on the cob and maybe a big frosted cake for dessert. What a way to celebrate the day! I did go to my in-law's for lunch and was treated to a spread of sausage rolls, chicken tikka kebabs, tea cakes, pickled onions, roast beef sandwiches (lovingly referred to “butties” in the part of the country I live in), shrimp cocktail, duck spring rolls, and garlic bread etc.

While sitting with my brother-in-law, he asked me straight out – why? Why are the Americans so interested in this royal family's goings on? Why are people spending hundreds on plane tickets and camping out on the side walks in English weather? I know people who live in London who actually left the city in order to avoid all the chaos, and rented out their homes to make a quick pound. There are groups here who want to end the status of the royal family and are protesting the wedding as a waste of taxpayer's money. What makes this family so attractive to the “Yanks”(as I'm so often referred to)?

I've got to admit, I'm a bit gaga for it all as well. Even after being woken up half a dozen times during the night by my infant son, I was up at 8am in order to watch as much of the day as possible. I got a bit teary eyed when Will mouthed “You look beautiful” to his wife-to-be. I thought about hosting a street party in my little cul-de-sac like the ones they had when Charles and Diana got hitched. I was falling into that stereotypical American-tourist mentality even though I have been living among the English for almost 5 years now.

I think the whole American obsession with this event can be summed up in one simple phrase – they've got something that we don't. We have families like the Kennedys, with their political dynasty, families like the the Lohans with their have-to-watch-car-crash lifestyle, families like the Gateses, with all the money in the world to give to any charity they choose. The British, though, have that all in one single family. On top of that, they have the castles, the titles, the accents and the history to go along with it. I'm not sure about you, but when one family's reign has the potential to last longer than the length of time your country has been in existence, it slightly impresses me.