The little flat red flowers that people are wearing on their lapels these days—from a distance they look as if they’ve been crocheted—are the ones I’m wondering about. I’ve really only seen them on people on TV, but they could be out and about in the real world too. They’re probably about two inches in diameter. I hate to miss out on the newest ‘cause’.
Remembrance/Veterans Day poppies.
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Ah, I should have guessed. :smack: Many thanks.
Well, at least you’re not missing out on the latest cause.
I saw a Canadian guy wearing one yesterday, as I refueled. (I’m close to the border.)
You’d have to go back more than 90 years for this to be the newest cause, considering they began after WWI.
I never realized the custom originated in the United States. I’ve always associated it with Britain and Canada.
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, MD, Lt Col, Royal Canadian Army, 1915; in the public domain
When I was a kid, we used to buy them for a quarter or a dollar or something from the VFW outside supermarkets just before and on Veteran’s Day. Now, I never see them for sale.
Come to Canada, they’re all over the place. Want me to send you some next year?
Wow, you’re young. They were a penny or nickel when I was a kid. They were usually sold on the street, by disabled vets, since we didn’t have supermarkets until I was in my 20s.
My grandfather would buy them for each family member, and the kids wore them to school the day after Veterans Day. They were made of paper coated with lacquer. The yellow center was ceramic on a wire. The flower petals were impaled by the wire. They smelled funny.