# whats up with this "flower" that the brits wear these days

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-flower-that-the-brits-wear-these-days/471810>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 8, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-flower-that-the-brits-wear-these-days/471810 "2008-11-08T15:28:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-flower-that-the-brits-wear-these-days/471810/21 "2008-11-09T22:13:38Z")

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it’s felt applied to a plastic backing. I can remember when they were made entirely of a stiff felt, without the plastic, and the centre was made up of a black dot and a smaller green dot. Now they’re only two pieces, the black dot and the felt-on-plastic. I seem to recall that the all felt ones were a darker red as well.

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**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-flower-that-the-brits-wear-these-days/471810/22 "2008-11-10T11:00:29Z")

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I remember putting the old felt ones together many (hundreds of) moons ago. The Legion brought all the parts and our class spent a few hours doing red, black, green, pin! over and over. It was better than Social Studies at least. 😃

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**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-flower-that-the-brits-wear-these-days/471810/23 "2008-11-10T13:39:32Z")

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> [@Loach](#):
>
> I have bought a poppy from the VFW every year that I can remember. Maybe you don’t have a VFW near you.

Yeah, it might be a heavily regional thing in the US … and I’m wondering if there isn’t some North-South dichotomy going on (I am in Louisiana). There is a VFW hall a few blocks from my old high school, and I still never saw the poppies.

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**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-flower-that-the-brits-wear-these-days/471810/24 "2008-11-10T14:53:22Z")

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I always buy poppies from vets, usually outside my Trader Joe’s. I’ll go looking for them today.

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**Author:** ![quixotic78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3ab097/32.png) [@quixotic78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quixotic78)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-this-flower-that-the-brits-wear-these-days/471810/25 "2008-11-11T22:21:28Z")

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For what it’s worth, I’ve lived in San Diego, Seattle, Connecticut, Tennessee, Illinois, and Virginia, and I’d never seen anyone wearing a poppy until I went to Victoria, BC this weekend. And for many of my years, I’ve lived either on or near Naval bases. The poppy as a sign of remembrance just isn’t common in the US.

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