Queen Elizabeth II by Oast House Archive, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper joins the crowd in pulling out the remotest Queen-related incident to join in marking her passing: it was at a Caribbean vacation location sometime in the 1980’s, when Queen Elizabeth’s visit coincided with the keeper’s; and he somehow ended up in a taxi traveling just ahead of an official Queen procession. An impatient driver leading the procession got on the bumper of the keeper’s taxi with NO room to spare and stayed there, honking and ignoring the fact that there was no way for the taxi driver to get out of the way. It went on for an incredibly long time, long enough for the taxi driver to resort to desperate whimpering, and for the keeper to be convinced he was about to be run over by the queen.
The experience ranks as among the most harrowing of the keeper’s vacation adventures, and that includes being dragged head-first through powder snow by Iditarod sled dogs.
So, RIP, Elizabeth, and I am happy that you “got ahead of my taxi” in the only procession that counts.
