The Queen’s Handbag

While watching the Netflix series The Crown I’ve been struck by the notion that Queen Elizabeth carries a handbag around Buckingham Palace. What is in it?

The Divine Bette Midler asked that question during her show of pure entertainment at the Copa many years ago. Bette mused that the Queen did not need a token for the subway, so what was in there?

Snowstorm

I saw the Divine Miss M with three co-workers: Mary, Susan and Gene. Susan and Gene were a couple. Our ages spanned a decade or so, but we were all young. After the show two young men in suits swept Mary and me up. The four of us left together to walk down Fifth Avenue to the Brasserie to have something to eat. There had been a very heavy snowstorm and there was no traffic on Fifth Avenue. Talk about divine. Somewhere between the Copa and the Brasserie the four of us got into a fight—the two women against the two men. Invectives were hurled—possibly even snowballs.

Memories

Mary is still in my life, and I could ask her if she remembers, but it was one of many events remembered only in a partial sense (and not just because of alcohol taken). I have no idea who all of the participants were, why we were going out with them, or why we fell out with them.

There are many other distinct but partial memories rattling around in my head. For instance, I met my wife’s brother before I met her. That brief but apparently unforgettable introduction occurred in an apartment in Boston, but I didn’t know the apartment dwellers. Why was I there?

Into the Wayback Machine

Going even farther back, I can recall thousands of visits, drives, boat rides and events with stunning clarity. I even can remember the feeling that each event lent, what someone wore, but who were the others in the car or the boat? Sometimes their names can be retrieved, sometimes not.

Time Marched On

Susan and Gene married and had children. Mary married—I went to the wedding—had children and now has grandchildren. I married, making the man I met in the Boston apartment my brother-in-law.

At the same time, Queen Elizabeth was living her life. Her children married and had children; most of them divorced and remarried. Her grandchildren are marrying. The marriages were televised; the other events were splashed across the tabloids. She is very old now and still carrying her handbag. Her memory is reported to be very good.

I’ve learned from The Crown that the Queen’s private quarters are a long distance from where she must travel to the public rooms. I imagine that the handbag holds a comb, a lipstick, a handkerchief, various eyeglasses. A lozenge.

Should the Queen ever use the London Underground, I very much doubt she’ll need to buy an Oyster card. So whatever is in the royal handbag, there are no coins, no pound notes and probably no stamps. No iterations of her own head. If I wrote and asked what was in her handbag, do you think she’d tell me?