Mac Meets Royalty!

MacWe are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of travel reminiscences.

It’s true, back in November, Mac met Prince Charles and his consort, Camilla aka Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall. The British Embassy sent a van to pick up some of us World War II retirees for a wreath laying ceremony by Prince Charles at the WWII monument here in Washington DC. Mac and HRH Prince Charles

I told the lady that was trying to get me to go that I did not feel well enough to go but she said “You don’t have to feel well” Ha. I did go and am glad I did. They gave us front row seats and the British military from embassy visited with us and then after Prince Charles presented wreath he walked around the perimeter to have the memorial explained and he came down the line to shake our hands.

His wife Camilla followed and then the British Ambassador, his wife and various British VIPs. I had heard you were not to speak to royalty until spoken to but the Prince put out his hand and I explained that the man next to me was 94 years old. He remarked how well he looked, thanked me for my service. Then Camilla put out her hand and told me her father had been in the military. Her face and appearance looked better than I had expected and afterwards I wondered if it had been her. The Prince incidentally was not as tall as I expected. I almost felt like I should apologize to Camilla for the remarks press made about how she dressed. A buddy of mine, wanting to be nice, said to her, “You have a nice hat.” What made this so funny to me is that I don’t think this friend pays any attention to how women dress. It does make us seem kind shallow to criticize how one dresses.

MacAs for myself I like polyester clothes. They are comfortable to me but some look down on those that wear such. I am the world’s worst dresser. At 8l plus I dress for comfort and for survival. I wear a small backpack for medical stuff and survival stuff (granola candy bars etc) and always have too much in my pockets. People often ask me if I am going hiking. I say “No, just to the White House (joking) I recall some made fun of how Kruchev’s wife dressed when she was here. I thought that was impolite that time too. Ha! I do think it is unkind for the press and comedians to make fun of the way she dresses such as remarks she brought with her 57 frumpy dresses. I thought she was dressed appropriately besides she was nice to me. I told the British Ambassador and his wife about the Chelsea Pensioners (British equivalent to our Old Soldiers Home) visiting us and that I had visited them many, many years ago on my own. Everyone was very nice. Lets all be nice to each other!

I got the impression that they wanted Americans to like them. MacAfter the wreath ceremony at WW2 memorial, I looked at the wreath they laid. It had something about thanking WW2 veterans and was simply signed Charlie and Camilla. Or maybe it was Charles and Camilla. No title given and since the wreath was small it occurred to me that later visitors might wonder who this Charles and Camilla were. Ha! Who was this couple that spent their good money to honour WWII veterans??

Our group were impressed with how friendly and down to earth they seemed. You did not feel like you were speaking to royalty and they did not seem to mind that we spoke to them before they spoke to us. A friend said he told Prince Charles that he had visited the Chelsea pensioners in London and had gone out to Sandhurst (their West Point) for passing out ceremony (they refer to graduation as passing out). The Prince asked if he had a good time and remarked that his son was going to Sandhurst. (I thought they usually went into the Navy) To get back to the Charlie and Camilla we were all impressed with how much time they spent going down the line to greet us and how friendly they were. They won us over in their democratic behaviour rather than royal behaviour. Maybe they act differently in England where maybe Royal behaviour is expected.

If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed on: macsan400@yahoo.com



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