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Aint it Great

O

O.C.

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Aint it great that the few who "Remember" on the Forum do so in their own little way, proud of ya all
 
It is not WAR we remember at this time but the suffering of men women & children in all the WARS THE WORLD OVEROVER.
WERE YOUR POPPY WITH PRIDE.
ASTON
 
Graham,
I have been wearing a poppy
every year since I was a kid,
and what's more proud to wear it
 
Dennis all my coffee mugs have poppies on them which I use every day their are Poppies in two rooms of the house and gardens .............so I don't have to wear one........and I bet I have more items of remembrance than most folk........and do more than most folk to keep the memory alive
I dont have to be reminded to wear a poppy as I live with them every day
 
Lest we Forget

I too wear my Poppy. I wear it for many reasons - one of which is to visually promote the British Legion to others, which in the past have been very supportive to my Mother and Father.

I also obtain poppies for housebound people who live alone if they want them, and most of them do. They may not get out, and they may not have families to share all their memories and experiences with - however many of them were children in WW1  and participated in some way in WW2 and proudly wear their Poppy.
 
I was in St Philips Cathedral at the 11th hour of the 11th day, yesterday. There were less than a dozen people there but it was a great atmosphere of quiet contemplation.
 
I understand you Paul - Last three lines of a poem I wrote

A dimly lit cathedral to make ones spirits soar
That makes my heart stand still in reverence
As GodÂ’s Love passes through the door!
 
On remembrance day every year I look at the poppy that I brought home and pressed from the Somme.

I will never ever forget the first time I saw those rows of white crosses.

Thiepval memorial with 73,000 names of men whose bodies were never found.

It is such a beautiful quiet place and standing there you realise what a sacrifice a generation of young men made for this country and then 20 years later another generation did so again.

I will always wear my RED poppy with pride.
 
:angel: I have posted this before, the day when it was taken and Crystal was three years old. She is now five years old and Colin has taken all our 5 Grandchildren in turn as they have reached school age to the 'Dawn Service' at our local Cenotaph on 25 April ANZAC Day here in New Zealand and Australia.
Our family never forget and neither will the next generation of our family.
 
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My Father who served on the Western Front for nearly thee years, and was discharged wounded, never bought a poppy, He could never get over the fact the 'Haig Poppy Fund' was a charity, his argument was it should have been a Government responsibility to look after all those service men that had gave so much to their country.
He never did change his mind.
 
Nick, A lot of injustice was done in the name of the Poppy appeal at the start a portion of all money collected went to the Haig estate for the use of his name and this is what the old soldiers resented
Then the Haig Poppy appeal was changed to the Poppy appeal but the old un's have never forgot it
And my mother never bought a Poppy for that reason,.......... but times change and memories fade and things move on
 
I know my Dad felt strongly about how the old soldiers were treated, Pension's reduced if they had managed to find work for a few weeks, forced to 'busk' on the streets playing tin whistles, and mouth organs, he never stopped my sisters and me buying a poppy, he just wouldn't buy them himself.
 
mom remembers the invalids on aston rd beggin ,singing,trying to make music,holding out makeshift boxes for money,some had arms legs eyes missing,dressed in rags,my grandad was a bit of a bullybut if he was on the coal cart a few bags would fall off same as if he was carrying beer,i am not surprised if he was related to dick turpin.the beggars of today only have themselves to to blame,the beggars of 1918 t0 30(most were dead by then)were completly different ,these deserved help they never got from a country who soon forgot the enourmous sacrifice they made ,these who so willingly went to be slaughtered and maimed on a wave of patriotism that will never ever be experienced again,i am fiercly proud of the the lambs that went to slaughter but not the butchers who sent them,after all these years tears still swell up whenever its talked about or i see the films of the conflict
 
Pete, I have to step in their.....The butchers never sent them. .......they joined on a wave of patriotism.
what happened next is another story which would need a few weeks to explain.
We were an untrained army up against the finest fighting troops in the World but at the end of the war we had turned it around and pro rata more officers were killed than men, Generals were also killed, then some who shall be nameless wrote a book "Lions led by Donkeys" and the term stuck.
But in those short years we had become a well organized fighting machine and had advanced leaps and bounds.........ask anyone how the war could have been fought different....and they could not tell you.....
In all Wars their are idiots and we had a few but Haig was not one of them......He was all we had when Kitchener was killed.......But he learnt fast. Myths abound about the Great War just like Gallipoli ask anyone you know from what nation were the greatest amount of soldiers killed ...........and you will hear Australia.........but thats not the case it was the French but no one talks about them do they....
Being this thread is about the Poppy if the subject wants to be discussed open another thead in the Aston Arms
 
There used to be a family named Hobday who ran a off-licence on the corner of Dean road Erdington.
 
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