War and Remembrance - Part I

Red Corn Poppies/Flanders Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)

Next to the entrance at the Raley's supermarket on Tully, an elderly man sat quitely next to a table with a sign draping over the front which read "VFW...". Over the white table cloth laid a number of delicately hand-made red poppies. A stack of pamphlets. Near the edge of the table stood a 5-lb coffee container donation canister.

I pressed a bill into the canister and greeted the veteran. The soft spoken man who donned his service cap smiled, and handed me a poppy. He was borne in 1938. He asked if I were a veteran. I said I was a baby-boomer. We touched upon the wars of the past and present.

Many today, he said, didn't see war and remembrance like the "old ways." Before we parted, he asked if I were married. Then he gave me a second flower and a VFW pamphlet explaining the "Buddy" poppy. *

This soft spoken senior I met two Saturdays past was once a young soldier who fought in a war. Many years from now, how would our veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars talk about their "old ways"?

I lost one of the two poppies inside the store. The other one I tied it inside my truck behind the rear view mirror.

Today is the US Marine Corp's 229th birthday. Semper fi!

Suggested readings:

In Flanders Field - John McCrae
A Reply to "In Flanders Field"

In remembrance of a Modesto friend's brother, Justin Wood, along with others, gave their lives for duty, honor, and country on June 25, 1996, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

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*VFW poppies are assembled by disabled, needy and aging veterans in VA hospital, state veteran's homes and domiciliaries across the country. The majority of proceeds derived from each campaign conducted by VFW Posts and their Ladies Auxiliaries is retained locally to provide for veteran services and welfare.

Buddy Poppy proceeds represent no profit to any VFW unit. The money contributed by the public for Buddy Poppies is used primarily in the cause of veterans welfare, or for the well-being of their needy dependents and the orphans of veterans.

The U.S. Congress by Joint Resolution in Many 20, 2004, honoring past and current members of the Armed Forces and encouraging Americans to wear red poppies on Memorial Day.