“Eyes Right!”

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. Living in the US, I miss the traditional wearing of the poppy, so this year, I knit one I can reuse.

 

The other traditions I miss are school assemblies of remembrance or going to the service that included laying wreaths at the cenotaph where I was guaranteed to hear a choir sing In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

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.

Parents of some of my friends fought in the Second World War. I remember seeing Mr Fournier tear up one year during our school assembly, as he stood erect, thumbs lined up with his pant seams, and the bugler played The Last Post. 

The two World Wars have almost become ancient history to the kids I teach. It is not so to all young people. Here  is video I’ve shared before. No matter how many times I see this little fellow dressed in a  Seaforth Highlanders of Canada uniform, I get teary-eyed.