This is something I was going to ask before all this recent stuff blew up.
I remember seeing the Queen when I was about 4 or so, a really hot summer in '76, and the Queen was opening a leisure center/community centre about a mile from where we lived. So my mum walked me over to that so that I could see the Queen. The most memorable part of it for me was that it was such a hot summer that the path melted in places and my mum's sandal got stuck in the horrible melted asphalt-type surface, so she had to buy a new pair of sandals when we got there!
Then I remember, my dad worked on the railway so got us platform tickets so I could see the Queen (I was probably about five, which would have been 1977 the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee) when she stopped off at our local train station...she was probably traveling in the Royal Train.
I don't have a strong recollection of actually seeing the Queen at these events, but those and all the events we did in school in 1977 (colouring in Union Flags etc) gave me a sense of how awesome the Queen was to our country.
I think the only time since then, was when I was about 20 and I was in town and saw police blocking off a street, and it turned out that Prince Charles was in town to open a 'green' centre that did things like energy reduction surveys for homes to help people save electricity and energy. I was really shocked when the police started blocking off the street and heard the rumours around me that it was Prince Charles in town!