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May 20, 2008
Vetting Poppies
Yesterday I couldn't resist the US Veteran selling paper poppies, in anticipation of Memorial Day, certainly. I later found out that the "poppy day" in other countries is November 11, Armistice or Veterans Day, but in America somehow the poppies moved to our Memorial Day, when we remember all of our war dead.
What really surprised me, however, was finding out that I was just about the only staff member who readily recognized the paper poppy and its connection with veterans. Many hadn't seen it before or had some vague recollection, perhaps. Here I thought it was a universal symbol, and that school children all over the country back in the 50s and 60s took home poppies as a sign of support for veterans. Funny how you assume everyone just knows about "x" and you find out that it's something sort of regional, more or less, and worse, sometimes generational.
Anyway, seeing the veteran yesterday at the train station, I had to thank him for his service, a buy a poppy. As I walked away I thought about my visit to D.C. a year after the WWII memorial opened. A WWII vet in wheelchair was taken by family around to the various areas. I had to walk up to him and thank him for his service. I did that, in part, because my dad, veteran of North Africa, Sicily, Monte Cassino, Anzio, and more, told me a few years ago his neighbor one day shook his hand and thanked him for his service in the war. Dad said nobody had ever said that to him. Delayed gratitude, as in better late than never, is something we don't have much time left for, given the age of the WWII vets. So if you see one, say thank you. (If anyone wants to thank Paul Kushiner, too, I'll pass the gratitude along next time I see him (no e-mail for him!))
Posted by James M. Kushiner at 03:50 PM | Permalink
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My thanks to your father, Jim. Back in 2004, my Dad asked to be taken to the WWII memorial in DC. I too was overcome there by a feeling that I could never fully express my gratitude. At least I have done so to my father. Now, I wonder if I can buy a paper poppy here in Los Angeles? (They seemed to be sold on every street corner when I was a boy, or at least that's what I recall.)
Posted by: Bill R | May 20, 2008 4:00:49 PM
By all means, Jim, please give my thanks to your father.
Posted by: GL | May 20, 2008 4:13:02 PM
Thank you, Paul Kushiner!
Posted by: DGP | May 20, 2008 4:20:00 PM
My thanks, as well, to the elder Mr. Kushiner. What was his post? My grandfather was a dentist with the Corps of Engineers and later the Army Air Corps in Africa, Italy and France. I salute all those who have served, but especially those who fought in that terrible and necessary war.
Posted by: Ethan C. | May 20, 2008 4:53:27 PM
I'm sitting here with my dad, who is 88 (almost 89), listening to stories about his flying days in the war (transport, not fighter, but he's got stories almost as good as any combat ones!). God bless your dad, Jim! And I agree -- take the time now to thank these veterans; my dad likely won't be able to understand or acknowledge such thanks within another year.
Posted by: Beth | May 20, 2008 5:20:10 PM
The association of poppies with veterans can be traced, as far as I am aware, to the poem below that was written by a doctor serving at Ypres.
In England and Canada in the two weeks before November 11, veterans in their blue blazers, ribbons, and berets stand on street corners and outside of shops distributing poppies and collecting donations for veterans in need. There are services held at war memorials in most towns and cities on November 11, and a two-minute silence is kept at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. This poem is often recited.
In Flanders Fields
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
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.
Posted by: pilgrim kate | May 20, 2008 5:27:25 PM
Jim,
One of the delightful things about serving now, as opposed to serving during Viet Nam, is having people in say "Thank you for your service" and really mean it. My thanks to your Dad.
Neil
Posted by: Neil Gussman | May 20, 2008 9:21:49 PM
I too thank your father, Jim. My father, who died 18 years ago, served in WWII also, though I've never figured out where tapping on a telegraph key in the jungle of Dutch Guiana fit in.
Posted by: Judy K. Warner | May 20, 2008 9:35:59 PM
In Australia and New Zealand it is commemorated on 25 April, the anniversary of the ANZAC invasion in Turkey, a battle in which over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 Kiwis lost their lives.
The day is commemorated as a holiday beginning with dawn parades, and the morning is one of the few times in which all shops and non-essential services must be shut (the others being Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas day)
Posted by: Margaret | May 20, 2008 10:40:06 PM
My father, who's 82, served on a WWII troop transport ship in the Mediterranean. He escaped combat duty by being able to play the trumpet, and told us when we were little that he had the most important position on the ship -- the bugler. If it weren't for him, he said, the rest of the crew would never wake up!
Posted by: Rob G | May 21, 2008 6:20:58 AM
Thanks to your father, Jim, and to every man and woman who has served to defend our country, our liberties, and our lives. My father served in the Air Force in Italy in WW II.
I have bought a poppy virtually ever year of my adult life, and am saddened to learn of yet another instance of historical amnesia in the general population.
Posted by: James A. Altena | May 21, 2008 7:03:49 AM
Thanks to your Dad, Jim, and thanks for the reminder - I've got some other thanks to spread around this week and weekend.
Beth, many say logistics (as represented by your father's transport plane) won the war. A German ace who'd shot down an American transport went to see the wreckage, and found - a birthday cake bound for a soldier at the front. He wrote that at that moment, he realized the Nazis were doomed. A nation which could afford to assign any transport space to such frivolities, clearly had a logistics system that was unbeatable...
Posted by: Joe Long | May 21, 2008 8:26:51 AM
I would like to add my voice to the chorus of thanks to your father. I am always quite touched when someone thanks me for serving, even more so when it's a parent explaining to their child why they should thank me, but I am humbled even more when I stop to think how much that generation which fought WWII truely sacrificed compared to my generation fighting these wars. Even the Army, with the longest deployments of any of the services, still get to come home after a year or so. When I stop to remember that many in WWII were away for 2,3 years, and at times longer it really gives me pause. No e-mail or phone contact, no quick jet ride home (when I returned from Iraq I was in Austin, Texas the same day I left Qatar) I am truely amazed by their sacrifice and very grateful.
Posted by: dj | May 21, 2008 8:33:23 AM
There's a reason why many Vietnam vets still greet each other by saying, "Welcome home."
Every vet deserves our thanks. Even the ones who only served in peacetime still could have been ordered to war at a moment's notice, as a lot of people found out in 1950.
Posted by: Michael D. Harmon | May 21, 2008 9:35:42 AM
Like several other posters here, my father too was a WWII veteran, having served in the Pacific Theatre, where he fought in the Philippines, including in the Battle for Manila. He died 28 years ago. While my children, of course, never knew him (they are currently aged 8, 6, 2 and 3 months), lest they forget, I keep the flag which draped his casket along with his war medals and other memorabilia, and two photographs, one taken a few years before his death and one in his army uniform, on display in our foyer. When they ask, I remind them that there are men just like their grandfather who are fighting today in Afghanistan and Iraq and that we need to remember them as well. Just last week, my son was looking at his Dangerous Book for Boys at the article about artillery and was asking which illustrations were from the war in which his grandfather fought. I believe making that connection is important.
Posted by: GL | May 21, 2008 10:35:33 AM
My father graces the cover of this book, the story of the 726th MP Battalion. Dad kept meticulous records of his years with the battalion, and provided them all to the book's author, Professor Edwin Dooley of VMI (Virginia Military Institute), who repaid the favor by putting a picture of Dad on its cover. Dad served in all three theatres, domestic, Europe and Asia, before being demobilized. My goodness, he was only about 21 years old when this picture was taken!
Posted by: Bill R | May 21, 2008 12:26:29 PM
Having never heard of the poppies, what is the tradition behind them?
Posted by: Nick | May 22, 2008 7:49:19 PM
Nick,
As Pilgrim Kate noted, it appears that the association of poppies with veterans goes back to the poem "In Flanders' Field", which commemorates the growth of wild poppies on the gravesites of the war dead after WWI.
According to the VFW, the selling of paper poppies began in the 1920's as a means to provide economic assistance to ex-servicemen and their families. I've associated poppies with veterans for a long time, and it never occurred to me that it might be a regional thing. From Seattle to Chicago is a pretty broad swathe. Although, both my grandfathers are WW2 vets, and my mom's side is from the east coast, and my dad lived everywhere as a kid, so maybe none of my friends know about it?*
*Actually, every Veterans' Day assembly from 7th thru 10th grade, we read "In Flanders' Field", so most of them do. My school was weird, though.
Posted by: Michael | May 22, 2008 8:10:04 PM
This goes out to all who have served: THANK YOU FOR SERVING YOUR COUNTRY!!!!
James, concerning the poppies, I find that surprising too. I thought it was a given that everyone knew and understood the meaning of the poppy. Here in Starkville, poppies are also handed out on Veterans Day.
Posted by: Victoria | May 23, 2008 8:08:57 PM
But, are they traditionally sold by veterns as per the story? School groups? Independent groups? How was the money normally handled? Direct gifts? Through charitable organizations?
Posted by: Nick | May 24, 2008 3:56:39 PM
I think that various groups may sell them, but one most commonly sees it done by veterans themselves who are members of VFW posts. The declining membership of those means that one sees ever fewer sellers of the poppies.
Posted by: James A. Altena | May 24, 2008 4:24:19 PM
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