Plan B Forum

When I was a kid, this calendar day, the 11th day of the 11th month, was called 'poppy day'. My personal attorney and personal friend is the only person I have seen who wearing a poppy on this day for years. This year he did not. I asked and he said he could not find it. Used to be sold for an unspecified donation by the VFW. One would see the VFW members on the streets with a donation can and a tray of the simply made fake poppies for a period during October.

I recently asked a member of the VFW about this. The response was that the observance has changed. That day is now directed at appreciation for the living military veteran. May 31 [we used to call this 'decoration day'} is now for remembering all those who have died in all our wars.

Times are always changing. I observe that my online calendar for next month has nothing automatically noted on December 7. In 1941 the president addressed congress, beginning: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. . . . "

I guess that infamy has now died, except in the minds of a few who will not buy a Japanese brand car, no matter what the quality or value.

So I give to you the last verse of the poem that inspired "poppy day"

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.
John McCrea

snailgate

Thanks, snail. There's an interesting piece today on BBC News website about the change in Britain (and RO Europe I suppose) regarding Armistice Day. There was such immediate meaning to it when WW1 veterans were numerous and visible reminders of the disaster. Over time, much of the remembrance of the 1918 Armistice transferred to honoring the fallen dead of WW2 as well and then other conflicts. And now it seems to be more of a shrug. But still, the Cenotaph in Whitehall and the wreath laying and the wearing of poppies is yet a reminder of the awful cost of conflict - 20% of the British forces dead in France and Belgium in 1914-1918.

I remember road traffic halting at 11 a.m. and drivers getting out of their cars to stand for a minute of silence. Those fabric and thin-wire poppies were handed out to each child at school. Plastic these days - which about sums it up. That's almost all gone now.

So no, it's no longer quite the same back there and definitely not here. America has Memorial Day for its fallen (the post-Civil War Decoration Day as you mentioned). And Veteran's Day for the living, like my son. Besides, you yanks didn't show up until it was almost over anyway.

I carry no weight for the Soviet or current government of Russia. But enormous respect the Russian People and their willingness to sacrifice. The Siege of Leningrad--2 years, 4 months, 19 days before the Germans gave up and pulled back. While the Russians built bunkers with walls of frozen dead. And a woman roamed those walls as a very successful and feared Russian sniper.

snailgate.

They did it up right in Sydney:





They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Today Ancestry.com is allowing free access to some military records. I found my (late) brother, who served in the Navy on the USS Radford DD-446, and spent time at the Gulf of Tonkin in 1968....