Remembrance

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in Canada. It is one of those days that make me feel especially Canadian and especially proud to be Canadian. I'm pleased that we have an actual holiday to celebrate our veterans and that a lot of average people go out to the cenotaphs to participate in Rememberance Day ceremonies. And that businesses, events, TV and radio will come to a standstill at 11:11 to observe a minute of silence. As a child in the Brownies and Girl Guides, I marched in Rememberance Day parades every year. My dad was an incredibly proud Legion member - he served in the Australian militia (reserves) during the Vietnam era - and as a Boy Scout leader encouraged us to participate. My brother and I had no problem with the ceremony but didn't like the Northern BC November weather though it was the only time of year I could wear jeans with my uniform instead of a skirt. The cold just made the hotdogs and hot chocolate served after the parade taste even better.

And I love seeing the ubiquitous red felt poppies.

We buy the poppies every year and pin them on our jackets to represent the poppies that grew in Flanders Fields (row on row) over the graves of soldiers who died in Europe in WWI. We almost always have to buy more than one poppy because the poor pin design means they never actually stay where we pin them. If we weren't Canadian, perhaps we'd come up with a new style of pin that didn't fall out but the fact that they don't stay in place is kind of part of the whole ritual to us. They don't work and that works for us. In fact, there was controversy this year because a politician had deigned to put a Canadian flag pin through the middle of his poppy to keep it on. Only Canadians could get upset about something like this.

What I don't like about poppy time is that some people don't seem to know poppy ettiquite rules.
1. The poppy goes on the left side of your jacket - closest to the heart.
2. The poppy is not a decoration to put on your baseball cap or backpack.
3. You take the poppy off after 11:11 on the 11th - because you're supposed to have pinned it on a wreath at the cenotaph after the parade.

I see people on the streets breaking all these rules and really want to yell at them but I don't want to seem crazy enough to scold people for breaking poppy rules. So, I'm crazy enough to want to scold people but not crazy enough to actually do it. I think I can live with that.