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I can't talk to the old boys. It is terrible, once they start ditting, they stop selling and that's it, I'm their audience and don't go until I've wrung all of their dits out of them! I've been to the shop with the long hair and started chatting, she goes in, does the shopping and comes out. Stands there with a face like a totem pole waiting for me "Yea, hang on... you were saying"

Just like to mention that as far as I'm concerned poppies are not for sale and there is no set price. You make a DONATION and if you want to you take a poppy and wear it with pride. I think it is wrong of teachers to set a minimum price for a poppy.

I'm just listening to a great programme on BBC Radio 4, "Open Country", which is about the effect of the First World War on villages in the West Country.

To commemorate Armistice Day, this week's Open Country travels to Somerset and Sussex to reflect on how villages coped with the enormous suffering and loss of life in the First World War. The war memorial is a familiar sight on the green or cross roads of most villages, but how many of us stop and read the long list of names inscribed on the stone? More often than not we walk past or drive by without a glance - but each individual name was a farm worker or a squires son, a daughter and loved one and each story tells a personal tale of loss and grief that echoes through the generations.

"In the small town of Midsomer Norton on a rainy November morning Helen meets Chris Howell, author of No Thankful Village, a book which documents personal stories from veterans or their relatives of life during the Great War. Each story is a piece in a jigsaw that makes up a complex picture of village life during wartime. He tells Helen how the book became a labour of love, he even turned it into a play - casting local men and women as actors and how the names on the memorials seem to have become personal friends. "

It's available on the BBC Radio 4 website using the "Listen Again" button.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/opencountry.shtml

I was disgusted to discover at the Bn O Gp yesterday that the first 100 poppies sold in the orderly room gleaned a whopping CDN $17.00 (about eight quid)!

Needless to say, the RSM was having a melt-down and rightly so. A little education was evidently required via the SNCO net. Sorted!


[quote="Tab"]A chap yesterday came up dressed to nines and slipped in a 5p coin for a poppy, a young girl came with with a vast amount of ironmongery sticking out all over her body and quietly slipped in a £10,00 note.[quote]

Tab's report above is a grim comment on humanity! Having said that, many people who "have money", in my experience, can be very cheap. Reminds me of when I had my accident back in June. The only people who stopped to help were ordinary Jo's. The Lexus crew just kept going. If I had to decide who was the peasant and who was the prince, the choice would be easy!

In Canada lately I heard a news clip about Poppies and people always losing them ... and that once there was even an attempt to change the Poppy and use a kind of glue to stick them ... fortunateley there was a problem with glue sticking to peoples clothes and ruining them, so that design was quashed ... going back to the good old straight pin ...

Personally, I like spotting the lost/dropped Poppies on the sidewalks and in streets, and stores ... everyone who walks by them notices them and know they're about "Remembrance Day" ... kind of spontaneous reminding?

Drop a Poppy on purpose to reach more of Lest We Forget ??? Sneaky, huh?

Regards set prices or donations ... as long as I've known about Poppies and Remembrance Day ... they have ALWAYS been about "donation" ... hell, if a kid only has a Penny ... I'd give it to him/her ... and a little history story or even sentence to "inform" the young mind ... as sure enough, there are so many who donate every chance they get and donate much. It MORE than balances out I think ... and "donation" tends to open peoples minds and hearts ... and their pockets for worthy things ...

I think there are none so worthy and owed as our Vets and how they use this money to support so many good and necessary causes ... and in so doing ... they keep Remembrance and knowledge alive as well.

Gotta love that ... and gotta love those Vets! Especially those WW2 Vets who have given and sacrificed SO much for all of us, and continue to support and give give give even in their 80's, 90's and yes ... 100's.

PS: This is the first year that we won't have a surviving WW1 Vet at our National Ceremonies ... apparently we only have 5 of these amazing gentlemen left in Canada. The oldest is said to be 105.

Remembering ...

Here is a link ... get your Kleenex ... when you go there, click on the left side link "A PITTANCE OF TIME" to listen to the lyrics and watch the video clip of a Canadian Remembrance ... when i think of Remembrance Day ... I think of it's representing all countries and soldiers who lay themselves on the line for the rest of us, not just our Canadians ... so if you don't mind the Colonial input here ... I cried when listening/watching ...

"A Pittance of Time"
http://www.terry-kelly.com/introduction.htm

PS: For the stingy tightwads cheap buggars ... ARGH!!!!!!!!!!

K.

No, Freedom isn't Free!

I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Soldier saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves.
No, freedom isn't free.

No, Freedom Isn't Free!


At the going down of the sun, We will remember

I'm glad you warned us to get the Kleenex ready for that one, Kanadiana!

Another radio programme, "Not No-One: The Story of the Unknown Soldier" was on this morning at 11.02. It's on the "choice of the day" bit at the right of the webpage. The link does start with the news, so don't worry.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

Our Veterans Day is today.
Parade in Downtown Hendersonville.
I'll be marching alongside my oppo's and an increasingly few of those who made the Tee-shirt.
At the going down of the Sun,
And in the morning,
We Will remember them.


Paul.

As the last few WW1 Vets begin to fade away, we will soon be down to the last man and with out being rude that time is fast approaching. On the MoD site they have started to press for the last vet of WW1 to have a State Funeral and it seems that some of the powers to be are now considering it.

Tab, i think that is an excellent idea, They served their country now the country should serve them.

Tab wrote:As the last few WW1 Vets begin to fade away, we will soon be down to the last man and with out being rude that time is fast approaching. On the MoD site they have started to press for the last vet of WW1 to have a State Funeral and it seems that some of the powers to be are now considering it.

outstanding idea...sincerely hope it comes to fruition!

Without question these military elders deserve all we can afford them!

Had an awesome day today.

The vets looked splendid and it was standing room only at Calgary's Jubilee Auditorium. The premier, mayor, police commissioner, general, etc. were all there. Very nice speech from a former Chief of Defense Staff. I always like this day. It really brings the "Regimental Family" together. We always have a large section roped off for us in the Jubilee and, from the CO down, everyone sits amogdth each other. No special seatig for officers, SNCO's, etc. I always like to sit with the troops. Afterwards, the WO's and Sgts' Mess is always an all ranks open mess with the traditional "warm beer and cold meat pies". Good to see so many ex-members of the unti out this year. And the weather...fantastic. Glorious sunshine and very warm for the time of year. What a day! For the 60th of VE Day, I think we had a very good one!

I was watching Easterenders today, there was a theme about the WWII, Normandy landings and the suffering of those who fell. Some of the soldiers were not even 18 years old. The effect it had on their familis back home etc. It was so heart breaking.

I love chatting those the seniors, they have such interesting stories to tell and they look so awesome with their caps and medals.

Never forget