Remembrance Day and Poppies

All local schools round here have poppy boxes, they will sell you one. Supermarkets usually have them at weekends. Hope you find one.

Neversaydie
I bought five of the 'Somme' 100 poppies, one each for DH, DS, DGS and 2 in memory of my great grandad and great uncle who didn't come home. The latter two are in a display case alongside photographs and medals.
They're lovely, and a wonderful use of 'weaponry'.
You've reminded me to go down the garden and bring my 'Tower' poppies in for the winter. 'Her next door' told me that she wouldn't be taking hers in as 'I'm not worried, it will be fine outside'. As she's a thoroughly unpleasant woman I wasn't too upset when, on looking out of our bedroom window after a particularly cold night, I noticed that her poppy was in three pieces on the ground, all that was standing was a post with a bobble on! I know it's nasty, but in spring I put my three poppies where she couldn't help but see them!

When I bought my Tower of London poppy in August of last year I thought, naively of course, that most of the £25 I paid would go to charity.A little disappointed to find it didn't. Still the seven and a half million given to the charities will go a long way I'm sure.

I have ordered a poppy from the British Legion made out of brass shell casings and soil from the battlefields mixed with enamel for the centre .I don't think it's very big .Its to commemorate 100 years since the Somme and my grandad served on the Somme, but survived,so it's partly in his memory. (It was expensive!)
I will wear it with the white poppy I wear every year along wuth the red ones .I will also donate to the collecting boxes
I also have two of the Tower poppies which I keep in a vase and in spring have put out into the garden until the first frosts .I love poppies and have never grown them successfully
I never wear a poppy until just before the 11th. I think it's a bit like Christmas and everything else. If it goes on for weeks it somehow loses its impact imo .

A good time to post this?

Thank you GNHQ!!

Thanks GNHQ
A lot of us feel it's very relevant

Thank you for the GNHQ!

I think they do PamelaJ1

Help, I wear a knitted poppy and have done for the last 3 years.
I always donate rather more than £1 every year to the appeal but don't take a poppy. As I already have one it seems wasteful. I just presumed that everyone that had a reusable poppy would continue to support the charity, am I wrong?

Jalima, you stopped for a chat with them but they didn't say anything? How unfriendly!

Actually, no! they just smiled sympathetically at me hobbling on my crutches and DH wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways was chatting to them!

War is very complex isn't it ?damed if you do, damed if you don't , I have always liked the saying 'All It takes for evil to exist is for a good man to do nothing' The problem is what we class as good ,obviously isn't accepted as such in certain areas of the world ..when & if to get involved in others conflicts is another moral issue, also every country including our own beloved country has been on the wrong side of good at some time in history, we can only hope to learn from our mistakes & act accordingly , The wearing of a Poppy & having a day of Remberance is I think a good way/ time to reflect & try to learn from our own country's timeline.

An interesting article thatbags. I didn't know anything about Haig or his role in the war and in forming the British Legion. The article very much took the view that Haig was an unfairly maligned character - blamed, it seems, for the unncessary loss of thousands of lives in battle. It was also said that "Haig favoured tanks, gas and aircraft" and "fought the war using the most brutal attrition tactics."

Some might feel that he later tried to redeem his reputation by starting the British Legion and introducing the poppy as a symbol of remembrance. It was interesting that poppies were originally marked with the initials HF, standing for Haig Fund - hardly a selfless gesture.

thatbags I think I knew it was the Haig Fund because is said so on the big black stud that used to be in the poppy when i had them as a child. Also we often went to Richmond and I suspect the Star & Garter home had Haig's name on it somewhere.

Jalima, you stopped for a chat with them but they didn't say anything? How unfriendly!

I think there is a danger of the poppy being used inappropriately and undermining its purpose of remembrance. When Iwentto the cenotaph with my grandpa (in the 50s/early 60s) it was a special occasion. Poppoies were not usually worn until a few days before 11/11 and not after 11/11 unless Remembrance Sunday was after 11/11'.

A three week Poppy time seems overegging things and, for me, diminishes the specialness of the occasion.

Some of you might enjoy this article by Ben Macintyre: Remember Haig when you wear a poppy.

was it a poppy scarf?

I await to hear the national news

with an attitude like that no wonder no-one was buying from her.

I'm sure she was a one off and probably p****d off too if no one was buying.

I resisted the impulse to say any more or to strangle her with her own scarf.

Getting much more laid back in my old age

Anya

I don't think the older helpers are judgmental like that

I wasn't wearing mine today (come to think of it, was DH wearing one?) and we stopped for a chat with them to see how they are doing, they didn't say anything.
They are selling out fast, and wristbands are very popular too.

Diabolical!!!

I've just had a youngish, female poppy-seller say sarcastically as I walked past 'left your poppy at home have you?'

I stopped, turned and said 'No!'

What kind of attitude is that from a poppy-seller?

That's nice, Granny23, did you grow them yourself?

The only ones that survive in my garden are the salmon pink ones which grow like weeds!

Eloethan I don't think anyone should be made to wear a poppy or be given a hard time if they do not, that's why I made the ironic comment earlier in the thread about 36 million (as far as I remember that's correct) poppies are made each year, half of them going to the BBC.
It seems to be obligatory for all staff, visitors, performers - everyone at the BBC - to wear a poppy.

I don't think that the period of time for wearing one has lengthened, the Poppy Appeal is launched on a certain day each year so that is when they are normally worn, from then until 11th November. Some people do wear a brooch, pin, wristband all year round, but then again, that is their choice.

That is what it is all about - freedom to choose.

I think this is one of the things I had in mind when I wrote my original post.*Eloethan*, public posturing and fashion statements are light years away from the true significance of poppies.