Reply #4: I just read this article before I saw your post. . .

[Journeyman]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/featuredposts.html#a003788


The View from an American in London

Having always heard about the British behavior during the German bombing of London, the so-called “blitz,” I wondered what would happen today after news broke of the four bombs in the London subway and buses. Sure enough, there was no panic. There was even some stoic humor from the thousands who had to walk as public transportation ground to a halt.

Of course, this was not the World Trade Center in scale, in scope, or in the horror. But still, it would have been easy for people to panic or evacuate the city. Instead just a mile from the bomb sites, normal life went on. Workmen continued to repair houses. Kids stayed in school. People lined up for buses, borrowed bicycles, shared taxis. Sure this normal life was punctuated by expressions of concern and phone calls to family and friends and fear that someone they knew might have been among those dozen tragically killed or wounded. But I sensed for the first time the unique national qualities that led to the legendary British stoicism during World War II.

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