It's that time of year again...

[Meggers]

we have a red poppy in our house right now In honor of our vets...

Is the poppy a universal symbol of veterans?

[theborderer]

look at www.en.wikipdia.org/wiki/remembranceday

[Meggers]

^ Oh, thanks for the info! I felt bad even asking that question since almost every man in my family is a vet or served in the military. Just dont tell them that I asked

[Jordan]

That Wikipedia article was quite interesting to see what other country's do.

I like this quote

The First Two Minute Silence in London (11 November 1919) was reported in the Manchester Guardian on 12 November 1919:
The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect. The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition. Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all.

It makes a difference from last year when me made the tannoy announce ment at work the some Eedjit appeared and tried asking me why everything had suddenly gone quiet.

[Sir William]

I haven't seen any poppies for sale in my area for some years now. However, I have one I picked up in the Middle East from the British contingent on base. I noticed how the British, Canadians and Australians personnel all wore poppies but very few Americans had them.

[Mael Coluim]

I haven't seen any poppies for sale in my area for some years now. However, I have one I picked up in the Middle East from the British contingent on base. I noticed how the British, Canadians and Australians personnel all wore poppies but very few Americans had them.

Bill come south to Fredericksburg as the VFW are at the entrances of most Walmarts and large grocery stores the week of Veterans Day. With Veterans Day on a Sunday, I would think the Saturday the day before they will be out in force.

[ThistleDown]

Cheers, John. Thanks for initiating this thread again in 2011.

Rex

[nloken]

nloken,
If you have any trouble finding them I'm sure I can find you a couple of spares...

I thank you, kind sir, but I found one of them hidden under a scarf just today.

[piperchris]

At this time of year I always think of the huge sacrifices that the brave men of the armed forces have made. Heroes, nearly to a man. I think of my two grandfathers, Clyde. W. Daugherty, a soldier in the U.S. Army from 1920 to 1947 and his tour included heavy combat in the Pacific in WWII, and Albert F. Rassmuss another U.S. Army soldier who saw heavy combat in WWI in France and Belgium from 1917-1920 starting at the tender age of 17.

[Peter Crowe]

When I lived in Scotland, I always honoured veterans and the fallen by supporting the Royal British Legion Scotland (RBLS) and the Earl Haig Fund. In the United States I mainly do so through Church attendance and Memorial Day parades in May. During adolescence (11-16), I was in the Scouts and I spent the Saturday before Rememberance Sunday from 9am - 5pm selling poppies in uniform with kilt. At one point (aged 15-16) I also participated in two Rememberance Sunday parades, one in the morning with the Scouts in Uddingston and later during the afternoon in Hamilton as a cadet with the Air Training Corps (ATC). During my adult years in Scotland, I attended RBLS acts of Rememberance at Hawick's War Memorial and the Glasgow University Chapel which was dedicated to those students and alumni who fell in the Great War (1914-1918).

Where I now live in the States most people treat the 11th November (US Veterans Day) as just a day off from work to go to the mall.

I have a contact for poppies who is an American born Drum Major enthusiastic for all things to do with the Scots Guards and Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

My own family's history is peppered with those who served in both world wars. My paternal Grandfather (Grandpa) was a regular soldier from 1926-1953, and was with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France during 1939/40 whilst a sergeant in the East Surreys. In 1943 he went through an Officer Cadet Training Unit and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers (RE). My Great Uncle Willie was a Bombadier (equivalent to an infantry corporal) with the Royal Artillary in the 8th Army through North Africa (torpedoed twice on route) and Italy. My Great Uncle George served as a Private with the Gordon Highlanders later transferring to the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and was captured by the Japanese following the fall of Singapore in 1942, an ordeal which he managed to survive. My maternal Grandfather (Papa) tried to volunteer but was found to be medically unfit (with chronic respiratory problems) for active service and became a member of the Home Guard (KOSB) Coy. in Galashiels. When I was in my twenties, I too tried to enlist with the Territorial Army (KOSB Coy, 52nd Lowland Volunteers) in Galashiels but was rejected because I was underweight for my height (I subsequently found out I was born with Marfan syndrome which makes active service in the police or military medically impossible).

In WWI, one Great-Grandfather was a Senior Skipper (Commissioned Warrant Officer) with the RNVR and used his trawler to ram and sink a German U-Boat for which he was highly decorated by the Italians, Serbs, and French. Another Great-Grandfather was a Company Sergeant-Major (CSM) with the Hampshires in Mesopotamia (Iraq). My Great-Great Uncle Willie was a Major with the Gordons on the Western Front and was awarded the MC, in civilian life he was the Dominie (School Master) of Insch in Aberdeenshire.

What struck me about my Grandfather's generation was they never talked about their exploits with regard to action in the face of the enemy. My Grandpa mentioned Dunkirk to me once and told me that his unit nearly didn't make it off the beaches. My Grandpa and my Uncles certainly never regarded themselves as heroes and would have been highly embarrassed to be described as such by others. My family members were lucky, they all survived with life and limb intact unlike so many of their comrades who paid the ultimate price.

I shall attend Church in my kilt (day/hunting wear) with my ATC regimental tie and a poppy in my lapel on Sunday 13 November.

KOHIMA EPITAPH

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

(John Maxwell Edwards 1875 - 1958)

Lest we forget!