Anybody has poppies for sale today?

[Felix/FFDS]

Just asking.....

[Hagar]

You can get a poppy in almost every shop around here. If not there are British Legion poppy sellers all over the town.

[Craig.]

Who are no longer allowed to sell them with the pins from what I heard last year.

[ozzy72]

You can't get them here but I have a couple of old but well preserved ones. On Sunday I'll go to the two war cemetries here in P

[Hagar]

You can get one right here. http://www.poppy.org.uk/

As for the pins, that's almost certainly those darned Health & Safety regulations again. Somehow I don't think the veterans would worry too much about that & there was no such thing when they were up to their necks in muck & bullets. In fact they would probably have plenty to say about how things turned out in the country they fought for. I don't think it would be too complimentary.

[ozzy72]

A bit like that RAF veteran being told he couldn't look over his old Lancaster as there was a danger of radiation from the instruments

[Hagar]

The words War & Health & Safety do not compute.

[Felix/FFDS]

Craig, Ozzy, Hagar  - I just hope that the current generation (H excluded 'cause it seems he knows a wee bit more than the run of the mill "kid") knows what happened at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918 ...

While in the US it's a day to celebrate all veterans of all wars, it's still worthwhile to remember WHY this date was chosen...

[Craig.]

Hi Felix sadly most dont realise the significance of this day. Because I went to a predominantly military school every year they would take the school to the local church where there were war vets buried to plant poppy crosses at their graves, we would then goto the museum at middle wallop where they cleared out the display hall for us plus those veterans who could make it for a rememberance service and the minute silence at 11, after we would spend the rest of the day learning about why we were doing what we were. We all took this seriously and it did us no harm. It would be nice if more schools did this these days.

[C]

A bit like that RAF veteran being told he couldn't look over his old Lancaster as there was a danger of radiation from the instruments

Aye, just like the radioactive warning stickers in the cockpit of the Spit at Southampton Hall of Aviation/Solent Sky...

[Hagar]

Aye, just like the radioactive warning stickers in the cockpit of the Spit at Southampton Hall of Aviation/Solent Sky...

I & many of my contemporaries wore wristwatches with luminous dials & slept with an alarm clock with a luminous dial right by our heads for many years. I still have that wristwatch tucked away in a drawer somewhere as it was given to me by my late parents who have long since departed this mortal coil. It's one of the few things that I have left to remember them by. Am I supposed to attach a warning sticker to it before handling it or showing it to my granddaughter?

[Felix/FFDS]

I will confess that "Veteran's Day" or "Armistice Day" as I first learned of it, was "just another holiday".  It wasn't until I started getting interested in history that I realized the WHY of it all.

Even today, not having been in the military, I feel it is a remembrance of people much worthier than I.

There was no tradition of poppies as I grew up in Puerto Rico.  There was an undercurrent of feeling that US citizenshhip to those born in Puerto Rico was granted in 1917 conveniently to provide more cannon fodder for the War, so that War wasn't as "ours" as WW2, Korea and Vietnam, etc were/have been.

In the quiet of my cubicle, today  I give a little thanks to the veterans who have taken up the uniform, whether they saw combat or not (even REMFs serve), and to those who serve today, wherever they may be.

[Hagar]

Right from the time I was at infant school (aged 5) we always had a Remembrance Day service during morning assembly. We all proudly wore poppies at school on that day & were told all about the reasons behind it during the following lessons. Later, when I joined the ATC we attended a compulsory Remembrance Day parade, usually on the Sunday nearest the 11th of the 11th & the CO laid a poppy wreath on the war memorial. All our officers were RAFVR & most had served during WWII, one being an ex-Spitfire pilot & another a Radio Operator on Stirlings. Things are very different now & all this is probably seen as politically incorrect along with so many of our old traditions.

However, unless they have their heads stuck in the sand or never go outside I don't see how anyone can fail to notice it as BBC TV & radio still cover it in depth & give full details & the history behind it. I've been listening to a radio discussion on the subject only this morning on Radio 2 & it's been mentioned on every radio news bulletin that I've heard today.

[ozzy72]

Coming from a generation whose grandparents fought and my family being quite big I got to hear the stories whilst sitting on knees. I've also inherited an interesting collection of medals (including my great-grandfathers WWI and police ones ) various buttons, badges and one Anzac hat (one of my great uncles) and of course a Fairburn & Sykes fighting knife belonging to another great uncle who fought his way out of Arnhem.
My family haven't missed a war since Hastings I think. We take Sunday very seriously.

[Jimbo]

Got mine the other day, to pay my respect of the great and honourable family members we lost in the war.