Veterans Day

This Sunday is Veterans Day here in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada and other Commonwealth countries.

When I was a little boy we used to call November 11^th Armistice Day. This was the day that World War I ended: The 11^th hour, of the 11^th day of the 11^th month. The end to what must have seemed an endless war.

My mother and grandmother used to tell me the story of my grandfather who was in France on that day. He was an engineer with the Army’s Yankee Division. Shortly before the Armistice went into effect his unit was traveling down a road. At some point a German soldier approached them and told them not to proceed down the road because it was mined.

That German soldier could have easily been shot as he approached the American unit, and he probably knew this. Yet he risked his life even though he probably knew that the war was almost over and he just needed to survive a few more days or hours and then he could go home.

If not for this soldier’s act of bravery my grandfather may not have returned home from France, or he may have returned as a different man. This nameless German likely made it possible for me to be here today. The other men in my grandfather’s unit that day also got to come home from Over Seas and live their lives. It kinda blows my mind to think how a single act of bravery, a twist of fate, made my life and so many other lives possible.

When I was a boy we used to see old men in front of the grocery stores selling Remembrance Poppies. They had red pedals and the center looked to be made from poppy seeds that had been glued together. My grandmother told me that the old veterans in the veteran’s hospitals used to make them. They were unable to work or go home due to their injuries, but many were able to make these flowers. I’m not sure how true that story was, but it is what my grandmother used to tell me.

The WWI and WWII guys are mostly gone now. The Korean Vets are now in their 80’s, and the Vietnam Vets are in their 60’s or older now. I do not see the Vets in front of the stores like I used to. Maybe I just shop at the wrong times, but I also do not see the red poppies like I used to.

This past week I was in Toronto. I saw Remembrance Poppies everywhere. It seemed like almost everyone had one pinned to their coat. I was amazed. In the lobby of my hotel they had a box of poppies and a donation box. For one Looney anyone could get a poppy. I dropped my Looney into the box and took a poppy.

If you see a Veteran in front of a store selling Remembrance Poppies this weekend, please stop and say thank you. Make a small donation and show that you remember.

In Flanders Fields, by Lt. Col John McCrae

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.