Ah that glorious summer day. The 29th of July 1981.
Though it was almost 30 years ago, I can almost remember as it were yesterday.
The day began with my parents, unusually, waking me up early for a cooked breakfast. Then my sister and I were told to put on our best clothes (I was still too young to dress myself), and then we headed off in the newly washed Vauxhall Cavalier to, Carrefour, a supermarket.
My father and mother spent the next few hours carefully selecting the finest wines and cheap beer that they could afford then it was back in the car for the trip home. Of course, this was no usual day.
It was the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
The weeks leading up to this large event I did not really understand what was happening but knew that there was something big happening. The shiny large coins we were given at school, the Union Jack paper flags that seemed to adorn every street across the entire nation.
The rest of the day was a blur, I remember we had a street party, there were neighbours I had never met yet by the end of that day had bonded and, of course, there was a new fairy-tale amongst the British Monarchy.
Certainly a day to remember.
Fast forward thirty years and after endless years of cheating, divorce, re-marriage and of course the death of the late princess, we are again about to witness a Royal Wedding.
Prince William is to marry Katherine “Kate” Middleton.
Yet after visiting London this weekend I have come to the sudden realisation that it’s just not quite the same feeling, as it was back then.
Back then it was a large family gathering, everyone was out, the TV was switched off, the children were playing with neighbours children and the adults generally enjoying a day not seen since the Silver Jubilee on 1977.
Maybe times have changed, Britain is certainly a much more multicultural society than it was then, but, one thing is clear. The Royal Family just are not as popular as they once were.
Statistics compared from 1981 to 2011 are staggeringly different. In 1981 93% of streets held a party. This year things are clearly different.
In Scotland, where the happy couple met, 12 parties are planned in Edinburgh, but in Glasgow the only celebration organised has been cancelled due to lack of interest.
Latest figures show seven road closures have been approved in Newcastle, 10 in Manchester, 15 in Liverpool and 16 in Birmingham.
The elderly residents say that Community Spirit has all but vanished in places and that people just do not seem to care.
No matter what happens I will be watching. Maybe they are correct; maybe we are a nation that no longer cares.
But this is not a day to mourn it’s a day to celebrate a new era and to toast the happy couple.
May they have, like us, a day to remember.
