(photo by s.alt via flickr)
On October 19, 1957, in West Hyattsville, MD, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip paid an unexpected visit to a local supermarket, their first to any American grocery store. The New York Times reported that the royal couple turned into the appropriately named Queenstown shopping mall on the way home from a football game at College Park and wandered into a "giant food store. " The Queen, escorted by the store's manager, looked over the vegetables, "then moved to the dairy food counters where methods of keeping the food chilled were explained." She was, apparently, also intrigued by the meat counter: "The Queen seemed especially interested in chicken wrapped in transparent plastic and looked hard at a large counter filled with steak." Meanwhile, Prince Philip wandered around the store, eating cheese and crackers.
Next: The Queen's dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria, and the menu left behind.
2 comments:
God save the meat counter!
This article makes me think of the first time my New Jerseyan girlfriend realized she had to pump her own gas when out of state. She gave the machine a long and confused look, huffed a bit, then called me over with all the grace and dignity of an irritated empress.
Now you put "I'm all lost in the supermarket" in my head.
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