Will You or Won't You?

Few things will compel me to get out of bed at o’dark-thirty in the morning: the pop of gunfire, the heat of a house fire, the caterwaul of a baby distraught, and the blast of trumpets announcing the Wedding of the Century. That’s how news anchors the world over referred to the July 29, 1981, union between Lady Diana Spencer and the Prince of Wales.

A reported 750 million people — many who got up before the chickens — watched Princess Diana, bundled in taffeta, exit a for-real glasscarriage. Thousands of spectators lining the streets erupted into cheers, waving the British flag, and calling out her name. And in the predawn darkness of a Portland, Ore., apartment, dressed in flannels, I joined in their merriment… Click here to finish reading this post and to join the discussion.