POPPY DAY 11TH NOV...
HAVE YOU SEEN THE OLD MAN...OUTSIDE THE SEAMAN'S MISSION...
MEMORY FADING WITH...
THE MEDAL RIBBONS THAT HE WEARS...
IN OUR WINTER CITY...
THE RAIN CRIES A LITTLE PITY...
FOR ONE MORE FORGOTTEN HERO...
AND A WORLD THAT DOESN'T CARE...
posted by gypsy noir at 11/05/2006
89 Comments:
I think some of us still care. Your post is a testament to this fact.
I have such respect for our war veterans, and the soldiers currently in very dangerous places keeping the peace. I hope we do them proper honour on the 11th.
There are alot of people who care but this government doesn't treat our war heros with any respect, a lot of them died poor..the older generation, the pensioners are living on the bread line. These are the people who fought for this country...its disgusting..
that ralf mctell lyric reminds me of an old soldier who used to beg outside the shopping gallerys in town, he was there for years, i always gave him what i could but it was so sad
you know what really cuts me up...the pride and pain etched in their faces...we will never know that pride..or pain..
Gypsy,
When you're right, you're right.
The government in this country, too, gives lip service to our vets but very little else.
Great post!
Rache
its just so not right rache...you know we have some idiots in this country who call our royal family national treasures...no no no..they are but expensive kitsch we dont need..the real treasures are this lost generation who held this country up through those difficult war years...they are nearly all gone now its too late to put it right..a crying shame..
lest we forget...
Amen to that Gypsy.
My lost comments will hold their own minute's silence in memory...as Dale says..lest we forget..xx
Still lurking.......
I love that Ralph McTell song. Maybe I'll play it at band practice tomorrow.
are you lurking with bad intent val?..
or maybe in a tent hmm need to don my monocle and look all sherlock holmes like while i review the situation..
dale you know guy faulks night fireworks ..they are still going orf now its diabollocks...
What a nice post, I totally agree with you gypsy. I was thinking the other day that we are treating all the veterans, both here and in the US, ashamedly - and that something should be done about it.
but they are nearly all dead now its far too late...
Have you ever wondered why the armistice happened during the dreariest month of the year?
Bobby once asked me where the money for the poppy pins goes. (There are donation boxes in all the local retail outlets).
I told him that the money goes to the Canadian Legion, an organisation for Canadian war veterans.
Another item we touched upon was that the current membership of the Canadian Legion is decreasing, because members are simply dying of old age.
"This is good thing", I explained and asked him if he knew why.
To a young boy, people dying cannot possibly be a good thing...
Of course not, it never is.
But, when it involves membership to an organisation consisting of war veterans, it can be.
lurking....in a tent...lol...bless you
I spy with my wee eye...gypsy in a monocle and sherlock holmes hat...
Dale, that is so touching..
Oh right - that Guy...
elementary my dear val...aye dale that guy..
i think he was a jealous guy..but he went red instead of green..lol...
Sweet post, Dale.
I find it hard to get through Remembrance Day services. It reminds me of my dad, and all the others of his generation who saw such horrible things at such young ages. How they ever recovered to start families and live such good, honest lives is a tribute to what gentlemen they were. I would never have found the courage to go on if I had seen a tenth of what they did.
my grandfathers two brothers escaped the prison camps but they were broken men..one of them norman hung himself years later..and my mums sister and her new husband a military man ...were on the beach near here , they stepped on a landmine and were blown to pieces..
It's been many years since I heard the story and don't recall all the details, but my ex-husband's mum lost her entire family to the bombs in Yorkshire in '41 or '42. Afterwards, she came over to Canada. She was sixteen. Awful business. I can't begin to imagine what she must have gone through.
She wasn't a soldier, and neither were any of her family who were killed, but that war touched many thousands of civilian lives horribly as well as those of the soldiers.
So many have paid such a terrible price for the sake of freedom. I believe that they should all be remembered at this time.
I also have to believe that the powers that be, who have treated all of our veterans, our heros, so badly, will be judged by a higher power - then sentenced to suffer many times over the way they've caused suffering for others.
It's the only way, in my mind, that the injustices can ever begin to be reconciled. Karma is so sweet that way.
G'nite.
Rache
There are many veteran of the current fiasco in Iraq who could use a bit of good karma, or attention.
The Remembrance Day tradition in our little town is quite something to witness... for such a tiny place.
The week or two before November 11, all buisnesses and some individuals buy wreaths to display, with the proceeds going to the Canadian Legion.
On the eleventh, at precisely 11:00, we begin a ceremony that continues to choke me up and bring tears to my eyes every year.
It is held at the Centotaph in the square at the centre of town.
The local Veterans, Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, Brownies, Wolf Cubs, Sparks and Beavers and various service clubs do a short parade through town all bearing different flags.
The wreaths have all been gathered by then and placed one by one at the foot of the Centotaph in memory of those who fought and died so bravely for our freedom.
A couple of good friends of ours put up with the bitter cold while wearing their tartans and kilts and play the bagpipes.
Amazing Grace is one of the predominant hymns, but the recitation of In Flanders Fields always reduces me to tears.
It is certainly one of my very favourite poems.
A large gathering of residents is always in attendance and, after the solemn ceremony, we disperse, chilled to the bone, but hopefully that wee bit wiser...
My grandmother's first husband, Guy, was gassed at Ypes, France during the mustard gas attack in WWI.
Six weeks after he married my Grandma, he died due to a lung infection from being gassed.
I wear my grandma's engagement ring that Guy gave her, although I never knew him.
My Grandma subsequently remarried my Grandpa - Mum's dad.
My uncle flew bombers during WWII and was shot down twice over Italy.
He was taken prisoner the first time, but escaped.
The next time he was also taken prisoner, but was released at the end of the war.
He never spoke of it...
Isn't it interesting how we can all live in different corners of the world, yet recite stories of family who fought or felt the effects of the last world wars...
these tales will live on through us..the proof in what you have all recounted..we should never forget how hard it was for people of all nations because they were all someones son/brother father/sister mother/daughter..we have 2 min silence AT 11 0.clock on the 11th day and rememberance sunday..i love it when the big guns go off at the british legion to mark the start and end...its always sends shivers through me...very moving..
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