Remembrance Day in Canada

[Back2Jake]

Today is Remembrance Day here in Canada, however, I know the value of our friends around the world where soldiers have helped keep our land free.

For that reason alone, I wanted to post a blog entry here today.


A Simple Plastic Flower?

Today is Remembrance Day here in Canada.

Seems immediately after Halloween, the Legion and other similar organizations start selling Poppies in the vestibule of stores. For many, particularly the youth, this is what they know of Remembrance Day.

This year I noticed a big change in the sales of poppies. These small plastic flowers that we wear on our lapels (over our heart), have always been sold by the veterans or cadets. This year most stores had the poppies in boxes at the check outs. The absence of the person behind the sale is upsetting to me. See, my children would have asked questions about the veteran's uniform, admiring any military decoration, or have wished the soldier a good day and thank them. This year we simply put our coins in the box and took a plastic flower - again removing the meaning behind the flower.

While in one of the large department stores this year, I actually had a clerk not know that it was proper for the customer to put coins in the collection box and select a poppy to wear. She rushed over to check with another cashier!! This woman wasn't a teen either, but well into her 40's. Perhaps this wasn't a custom in her homeland, but I would like to think it would have been mentioned to her before that box was put on her cash, or that she would have been accustomed to Canadian Remembrance Day rituals.

I admit I am somewhat upset at the youth who find it necessary to decorate their clothing with placing the poppy in inappropriate areas on their clothing or find a need to collect them and run them along the cuff of their pants. This year, I had the opportunity to ask some youth what the poppy stood for, what was the meaning behind it. I was appalled by lack of understanding.

For all those who have protected my country and my freedoms, thank you.
To the families who lost soldiers, words are simply not enough.

Please know that there are those who remember, and care. That the poppy is more than a simple plastic flower sold in a box at the check out.

Toni Burghout

[workin for wood]

Yes, I'd like to thank my grandfather for storming the beach at Sword and living so that I can be here today. As much as I've tried, I can't imagine that experience, and how a person deals with it after the fact. I remember the hero's that gave us our freedom and support the one's that are still fighting for it to this very day.

[3_M]

Hi Tony,

Below is what was printed in one of the Canadian news papers.

I still see the soldiers going by our house.
Thank my friends.


An open letter to our Canadian Veterans:

On November 5, I phoned Mike in South Dakota to order some scroll saw blades
and asked how much the cost would be in Canadian dollars with exchange rate
plus shipping & handling. He then informed me, in a proud and boisterous
accented voice, that the price would be the same in Canadian dollars,
postage free, because that has been his way of thanking the brave Canadian
soldiers who liberated the North Eastern part of the Netherlands in 1945. A
simple gesture that made me pause and feel proud to be a Canadian.

On behalf of Mike from Mike's Workshop in South Dakota, and myself, a
heartfelt thanks to the World War II veterans and their fallen comrades for
their sacrifice and courage.


11/9/02

[Marsha]

I too would like to thank all the people who have sacrificed so much so that I can be free. I would also like to thank all the men and women who have decided to protect my future as well.

I wear my poppy with pride everyday of the year. Some ask why I'm still wearing a poppy in the middle of the summer, they tell me Remembrance Day was months ago, I tell them I never want to forget. I'm asked what do I do on Rememberance Day, I tell them I purchase a new poppy to replace the one I've worn all year, and I place my worn poppy in my memory box, my daughter will have to throw them away, because I can't bring myself to do it.
I do not purchase my poppy from the box at the checkout, I watch for a veteran or cadet selling them, and I buy from them. Afterall how do you thank a box sitting on a counter.

I think it is very unfortunate, that the youth of today do not know the true meaning of Remembrance Day, but I also think it is the responsibility of the parents, grandparents, teachers and elders to keep them informed. Buy your child or grandchild a poppy and while you're pinning it on their shirt, explain to them why they must wear it, and how.

Today I wear a special pin,
"We Support our Troops" Support the troops.jpg
in remembrance of the Canadian Soldiers who have lost their lives in the atrosities of Afganistan.

Marsha

[SharonW0111]

Toni--
You brought back a lot more memories to me than just rembering our soldiers.
When I was a very young girl growing up in a mid-size town in Texas -near to where I am now_ I was one of the children that went from store to store and stopping people on the street asking them to buy a poppie. It is a very good and fond remberance I have of those days gone by- now the trail station is closed as are most of the stores are gone - down town has moved to the sidelines of the instate and you don't go downtown any more at all- it is dried up and moved into delapadation.. and who has the gaul to walk up to a complete stranger now as a young child. Most of my good memories of my perfect hometown were involving growing up as a child of the 50s-- I was born in the 40s so I was a happy days child... yes even a flower child generation but I did work and I didn't do drugs.
But back to my memories.. it seems that I haven't even seen poppies sold here in the states in many years. I know I haven't gone to town shopping in a few years but even before then I haven't seen any poppies.
I sent Tony off to the Army in 95 and I know they weren't around then.. I don't think he even knows what the poppie was suppose to mean to our soldiers other than it is where you get herion.
It is a sad state when your children don't get the opportunity to have some of the safe wonderful memories some of us "old folk"s have.
Thank you Toni for reminding me to rember - alas I had comptletly forgotten.
Thank you All who served and who are serving-- no matter what country you are in.
Sharon

[Gill]

Lest we forget...

Anyone who doesn't understand what this thread is about (let's hope they are few and far between) might find this extract taken from the Royal British Legion's website informative:

Some of the bloodiest fighting of World War One took place in the Flanders and Picardy regions of Belgium and Northern France. The poppy was the only thing which grew in the aftermath of the complete devastation. McCrae, a doctor serving there with the Canadian Armed Forces, deeply inspired and moved by what he saw, wrote these verses:

In Flanders' Fields


In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.

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.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended. Civilians wanted to remember the people who had given their lives for peace and freedom. An American War Secretary, Moina Michael, inspired by John McCrae's poem, began selling poppies to friends to raise money for the ex-Service community. And so the tradition began.

May the tradition continue evermore. It's the worthiest of causes.

[Back2Jake]

I am sure there were festivities in honour of Remembrance Day, but I don't like to attend elaborate gatherings - Instead I choose to burn a particular candle in remembrance and visit some old memorials long forgotten by people.

Before I put the candle out this evening, I thought of this post I made this morning... and tried to recite that poem. Memory failed. Thanks Gill for posting it - a great way for me to put those thoughts to rest today.

[CanadianScroller]

I always found the nomen Remembrance Day a confusing one as a child.
How can one remember something they did not experience.

As a member of the Militia I marched in several Remembrance day parades.
I was in the Canadian Scottish Regiment. We wore our kilts, our feather bonnets and red serge. The uniforms were original. The red serge had oil stains on the left shoulder from where the rifles rested on them.

I recall going to a dry cleaners and asking if the jacket could be cleaned to remove the stain. I was told the fabric was too fragile to do that.
Time has a way of making some things dwindle.
The fabric of memories will fade to nothing if we do not set a side time to reflect on what has happened in the past.

No I cannot remember the horror of war. I cannot remember that seven brothers in my family died at the Battle of Sommes. I cannot remember what suppression is, or what the cost of freedom is. I cannot remember something I have not experienced, but I will not forget the sacrifices others have made.
I may not wear a poppy, I may not attend a service, today is not the only day to remember all the sacrifices others have made, but it is a day we should never forget.

Respectfully Carl

PS Lest we forget http://www.airmuseum.ca/web/war1.html

[ChuckD]

I wear a poppy the year round attached to the lapel of my coat. I do this in remembrance of way to many fallen companions. I don't need it to remember them, I wear it so that maybe others will see it and remember.