the red poppy

[RAGMAN]

Here in Canada,we honour our veterans by wearing a red poppy.It is worn generally after halloween until Rememberance Day Nov. 11.I was wondering if other countries have simular ways of hounouring their veterans? I think England wears a poppy too as i have seen Prince Charles wear one on occasion.Just wondering and hoping for some of your input.

[FLYBOYJ]

In the US it's usually the wearing of a US flag pin. Vets usually wear a discharge pin or a hat displaying where and when they served. Then you got the American Legion and VFW guys. All this on Nov. 11....

[Wildcat]

The red poppy is a symbol of rememberance in Australia as well on the 11th of Nov. On ANZAC day (25th April- the day of the landings at Gallipoli) however, all the vets throughout the country march in their Capital city or town with their medals displayed proudly. Every single town, big or small, has it own ceremony.

[trackend]

Yes we have poppy day every year, ours is on November 11th always a 2 minute silence at 1100 hrs, which is the 11th hour of the 11th day (WW1 armistice day)

This cut and paste tells of the history of poppy day, taken from
the link below which is worth a read

In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem:

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.


She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need.

http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

[Gnomey]

That poem sums it up nicely Lee.

[cheddar cheese]

Agreed. Im gonna be doing a parade in front of a few veterans and the public on Nov 13th, and I feel very priviledged and honoured to do so...

[RAGMAN]

thanks guys.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

We pass out the poppy's on our post all the time.

[102first_hussars]

Gotta funny story, It was quite a while ago but when I was in Army Cadets the Captain of the Reserve Unit at the time thought it would be nice to lay real poppies during the memorial, well Nov 10 we all prepared the poppies in bouqets and the seeds were uncured so no problems with mess, the next day the bouqets were all over the floor messed up and the seeds in the flowers were all plucked they were gone, we told our CO about this and he automatically thought we were up to something and he had been interigating us one by one the whole morning before the march to the city hall, he couldnt get any answers from us because we didnt do anything, he had threatend to call the Police over the stolen poppy seeds when we returned from the march, well that stuck with us until the reserve Captain stumbles out of his pickup and literally tips over and falls on the ground and screams "Dont you ever call my dog F*ck Off again!!!) we all knew he was a boozer so we didnt pay any attention, On the way back to the armoury me and the guys snuck out of the march and went home, didnt want to go to jail, the next wednesday we went to cadets again as normal, we were avoiding our CO, until he came in the room and he looked straight at us and he said

"you boys are cleared, the Captain has just been checked into rehab" "Finally wants to kick his drinking habit?'

"No it was that or jail, the RCMP picked him off the road and found 20grams of Opium on his person" and an alchohol level of 45 and they dont measure dope yet, but if there must have been 98 grams worth of Opium from those Pop imean umm....... you know what kids? drinking is what leads you to drugs so dont drink, Here have smoke"

" Whats Opium? and where are those Poppy seeds? I had said


and Thats what happend to the poppy seeds

True Story

[Nonskimmer]

Man, you're so full o' sh*t, it's comin' out your ears. Funny story though.

[plan_D]

The problem there is ...you can't make opium from the red poppies that you use to remember those lads who fought. It's special poppies that are illegal in most nations of the Western world.



That's an opium poppy.



That's the poppy we use to remember ...which you can't make opium from ...you tit.

[syscom3]

I posted this in another thread several weeks ago, but I will post it again as its perfect for this current thread.

This is my great grandfather on home leave (in London) from France in 1918.

He met his fate shortly after this picture was taken.

WT Bay
Lance Corporal
644115th Bn.
Machine Gun Corps.
Killed in action Monday 30 September 1918 .

The little girl is my grandmother who is still alive and kicking. She still remembers having this picture taken. One thing that dawned on me, is we are now so many years removed from this war, that only our senior citizens in their 90's now, have any direct living memories of those who served and died in that conflict. Soon, there wont be any living memories, only pictures and letters.

To all the soldiers of all the combatants who served in the war, I salute you!

[102first_hussars]

Ns it did so happen, except it wasnt Cadets (though was one) it was to deliver wine I was about 19 it happend in '92 we stole the crates of wine and got pissed and we got caught by our supervisor, didnt get in trouble he got pissed with us too, Sadly no Opium involved,

My best story for another day will be about my cousin and I getting drunk in a broke down combine in the middle of a Saskatchewan Canola Feild.

[lesofprimus]

So basically, u made the ****ing story up....

Dude, say nothing rather than making up bullshit.... It smells so much better...

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

LOL caught in the act there. Great Siggy there Les. I love it.