The newly-created Duchess of Sussex, nee Meghan Markle, is probably the most famous woman in the world at the moment. A host of people, from green campaigners to fashion designers, feminists to handbag creators, are hoping to ride on her generous bridal train. Including me.
Meghan is, like me and more than 1,000 others living in her new home country, a graduate of Northwestern University. In the United States, we benefit from the reputational premium of our degree. From journalism to theatre, engineering to business, music to medicine, the appearance of this prestigious Top 20 institution on your CV impresses most and engenders respect from those who matter. Cross the Atlantic and forget about that. Few have ever heard of us.
So amongst all the other good Meghan is expected to do in the world comes the likelihood that she'll raise awareness of Northwestern overseas. The Northwestern University Alumni Club of the UK is eager to help. Which is how I ended up driving to Windsor at 2:30 in the morning, car packed with friends, lawn chairs and purple flags, to grab a good spot to wish our new duchess well. Here are some random observations from what was, for a few hours, the centre of the world.
The early bird gets the worm
We left the house at 2:30. In the car park queue at 3:15 for car park opening at 4. My intrepid advance party bailed out, loaded our foldable wagon with lawn chairs, Northwestern branded materials and breakfast and hiked the additional half mile to the parade route. My God, it's dark. Good thing Mr. Bencard insisted we take the lantern.
I waited to park and joined them after my own hike. We remembered our clothing layers and waterproof things to sit on, but forgot how wet our feet would get. My God, it's cold. Why didn't Cristy wear socks? Fortunately, Meghan and Harry commemorative scarves also make handy foot-warmers.
This is how you claim enough territory for 20 more people to join you at the front of the barricades.
The rest of the alumni start drifting in from 7 as the trains start running from London. We're at full strength by 9. Which feels like at least noon. When are they opening that Pimm's van? (Answer: 10am.)
Well done, Windsor
I was a resident of the Royal Borough for more than a decade and still miss it. Thus it's with a feeling of some proprietorial pride that I say this charming little town put on the best-managed big crowd event I've ever attended. Consider this: more than 100,000 people along the parade route and we never waited more than three minutes to procure refreshments. Never waiting at all for the loos, which were always clean and had been refreshed with toilet paper. Amazing, frankly.
Security pulled off the trick of being both extensive and pleasant. Temporary fencing turned the whole route into a series of chambers separated by narrow access points looked over by guards. Access from one bit to another was possible but took time; the town had laid on so many food vans and loos that once you were settled you didn't really need to move, anyway. Security (and other) staff were abundant but friendly, smiling and joking with the crowd.
That festival feeling
Meghan and Harry announced that they were after a "festival feeling". They got it. The weather helped; though freezing at 5 am, we were slathering on sun cream and shedding layers under azure skies by 10. Picnic blankets, hampers, bottles of bubbly and bands. These sorts of environments magically unlock British reserve. Strangers have conversations and share provisions. Everyone adopted the unusual number of Americans with good will, coaching them through the little oddities of the day. Lashings of fancy dress keep the crowds and the news photographers engaged.
Media merriment
After years of rolling out PR campaigns on behalf of big tech companies, it was nice to be doing some for a personal cause. We got our messages out, and had live moments of glory on CBS (US), CBC (Canada) and BBC radio. I turned down Sky because they booked me into their studio at 7:15 pm (I would be back home by then.
The Sun (London) interviewed us but we didn't make the cut. We got a mention in the
Sunday People (UK) with a great photo of Meghan reacting to a "university chant" as they drove by us, but the paper got their facts wrong: that was "Go U, Northwestern" delivered by our alumni group, not Kappa Kappa Gammas.
The university flag was waving in crowd scenes reportedly seen by 2 billion people around the world. Granted, you had to look for that N ... and probably wouldn't know what it was unless you had a personal tie ... but it's still a thrill to contemplate. We probably could have done more were it not for that "kettling" strategy that applied to media as well as private individuals. From about 10 am, nobody was moving.
A rubbish way to watch a wedding
Like many major events, if you want to actually have a good viewing experience ... stay home. I watched recorded television coverage after I got home to see what we missed. A 2:30 start followed by a nine-hour wait to see a 2-minute carriage pass by is not rational. Even if we have visual evidence that Meghan saw and appreciated our presence.
But that's not what this is about. It's the experience. A lovely day out with your friends, drinking in atmosphere and being a part of history. A moment when 10s of thousands of people, spreading to the horizon, wave flags and sing along to
Stand By Me in an electric moment of community. Magic.
It's all about love
Michael Curry's evangelising sermon on the power of love reminded everyone that love is more than the romantic stuff. We were out there for love of university. A place that, in different ways for all of us, had shaped our characters and our lives. And had, at the same time, made us somehow all the same. I'd never met most of the 26 that I had organised the day for and spent 10 hours with. It didn't matter. In that way Northwestern events always seem to have, there was an instant comfort with my fellow alumni even though they ranged in age from 19 to 75 and came from a variety of backgrounds and fields. Across the generations, Northwestern chooses and shapes the same kind of people. I love spending time with them.
I'm sure Meghan would fit right in to that mix. She's welcome to drop by any of our alumni events if she ever needs a break from the royal gig. Somehow, I doubt she'll have time. I hope she doesn't mind if, while she gets on with her new life, we celebrate our connection in order to build the profile of our shared university. It does, after all, have a track record of instilling characteristics like a passion for excellence, a commitment to thinking globally and a need to give back to our communities. Meghan believes in those things and is about to make a career out of them. Others look at her and see an American actress turned duchess. We see a fellow graduate made good.
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