U. S. Soldiers Home Mac: during a century of travel (well 78 years!)
both in and out of service I have travelled to over 150 countries (I count
both North and South Dakota as countries) and for some reason have jotted
signs and happenings that I thought funny at the time (and now wonder
why!) So here is the perfect opportunity to share some of my anecdotes.

Here at the soldier’s home, we have just had some visitors from
London’s Royal Chelsea Hospital. Wonderful people: an officer and
his wife and four residents in their signature bright red coats. One time
when I was in England I went out on my own to the Royal Chelsea Hospital
and spent a few hours.

One of the members told me that Nell Gwynn, the mistress of King Charles
II saw some war veterans searching for food so she proposed to king Charles
that he build a shelter for them. He jokingly said he would build one
the size of her handkerchief. She then proceeded to unravel her handkerchief
by pulling out the threads from it to make a big circle for the size of
first home for the soldiers.

Maybe a tall tale but I think we here at our retired military home should
toast Nell anyway as we got ideas for our home from England. The person
that told me this said that he thought they should have a statue on their
grounds of Nell in gratitude. Maybe we should have one here too as our
retired military home was copied after England’s.

When I visited the London soldier’s home, it seemed to me that
the iron fence around the grounds even looked like ours or ours theirs.
The top position in our home was Governor (like England) until a few years
ago when it was changed to title of Director. We have garden plots just
like the ones in the UK.

If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer any questions
even if some of his information may be a little out of date. Mac can be
e-mailed at: macsan400@yahoo.com