# Google's Veteran's Day Doodle. . .

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 11, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641 "2011-11-11T21:38:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/1 "2011-11-11T21:38:49Z")

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. . .is a painting of a yellow ribbon 'round an old oak tree. Now I may be wrong, and I’m sure many here will surely love to tell me if I am, but isn’t that song about a guy coming home from jail?

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**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/2 "2011-11-11T22:00:30Z")

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> [@Biggirl](#):
>
> . . .is a painting of a yellow ribbon 'round an old oak tree. Now I may be wrong, and I’m sure many here will surely love to tell me if I am, but isn’t that song about a guy coming home from jail?

It is but the meaning has morphed into anyone who’s away.

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/3 "2011-11-11T22:14:00Z")

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The Straight Dope: [Why do we put up yellow ribbons during wars, hostage crises, etc.?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/623/why-do-we-put-up-yellow-ribbons-during-wars-hostage-crises-etc)

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/4 "2011-11-11T22:17:40Z")

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I really, really hate that meme and that song.

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/5 "2011-11-11T22:34:57Z")

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> [@Biggirl](#):
>
> . . .is a painting of a yellow ribbon 'round an old oak tree. Now I may be wrong, and I’m sure many here will surely love to tell me if I am, but isn’t that song about a guy coming home from jail?

Obviously not a [John Ford](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Wore_A_Yellow_Ribbon) fan. As it said in the movie, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” is a traditional song about absent soldiers that long pre-dates the Tony Orlando and Dawn version.

Around her hair she wore a yellow ribbon  
She wore it in the springtime, in the merry month of May  
And if you asked her why she wore the ribbon  
She wore it for her soldier who was far, far away

Okay, admittedly the rest of the [song](http://web.archive.org/web/20070927041745/http://www.thuntek.net/~asper/songs/yellowrb.html) is about how the soldier left her when she got pregnant.

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**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/6 "2011-11-12T03:13:58Z")

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Ha… I remember singing that song in some sort of grade school production…we only sang the first verse. Sweet childhood moment ruined forever! 🙂

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**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/7 "2011-11-12T03:24:25Z")

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Growing up in upstate New York not all that long ago—say around 1983 or so—the remembrance poppy was still the Veterans Day symbol. Although, I haven’t seen it since, after moving to South Florida and Chicago.

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**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/8 "2011-11-12T03:44:54Z")

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> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Obviously not a [John Ford](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Wore_A_Yellow_Ribbon) fan. As it said in the movie, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” is a traditional song about absent soldiers that long pre-dates the Tony Orlando and Dawn version.
> 
> Around her hair she wore a yellow ribbon  
> She wore it in the springtime, in the merry month of May  
> And if you asked her why she wore the ribbon  
> She wore it for her soldier who was far, far away
> 
> Okay, admittedly the rest of the [song](http://web.archive.org/web/20070927041745/http://www.thuntek.net/~asper/songs/yellowrb.html) is about how the soldier left her when she got pregnant.

She Wore A Yellow Ribbon is not the same song as Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree. In fact, they’re sorta opposite. In one, the woman is remembering her man, in the other a man is asking his woman if he is still wanted.

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**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/googles-veterans-day-doodle/602641/9 "2011-11-12T04:21:55Z")

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Cultural memes has the cwaythietht origins. You should hear the debates about the Guy Fawkes masks in the Occupy movement!
