11 Nov Poppies
Hedy served as secretary for the American Legion P
ost in Columbia, SC for many years. In addition, she was active in the American Legion Auxiliary. She and her lady friends would sell poppies in order to raise money for veteran causes.
When you wear a poppy, you are reminding everyone what our veterans have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice for us.
Here is the story in a BBC News article about how the poppies were first sold in support of veterans. See the 2nd comment below for more details.
In Flanders Fields
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.
John McCrae 1915
In honor of our Veterans and all who support them
Veterans Day, November 11, 2009
Kathy
Posted at 21:23h, 15 NovemberI remember her telling this poem too. Great post.
Nell
Posted at 19:16h, 11 February“In Flanders Fields”, a Canadian WW1 battlefield poem by an army doctor from Ontario was not introduced to the United States at the end of the war as implied. Nor was it published in November by the Ladies’ Home Journal itself.
It was included in a large paid full-colur advertisement for Bauer & Black Co. part of a series of patriotic merchandising illustrated by Philip Lyford’s painting “Flanders Fields”, the little poem mis-titled (originally appeared in England, Punch magazine December 8 issue, called In Flanders Fields, author at that time not known to editors.) B&B even included inaccurate information about Dr. McCrae…When the poem reached the States as it joined the war, it was set to music by such as Sousa, and citizens wrote “replies”/Answers of varying quality and send them to local newspapers.