First time I ever saw a VFW Poppy was in a large box on Grandmother’s sideboard one May 29th evening in the late 1940’s. Next morning, on Memorial Day, she took me along, door to door, selling those poppies to everyone who would buy one. After that effort we spent the mid-day riding in the big Memorial Day Parade, before spending the rest of the day decorating veteran’s graves in various cemeteries.
Grandma was a legal, second generation American. Her love for her country and her elder brother, who had died in Europe defending American principles and everybody’s Liberty, compelled her to be a staunch member of the VFW - Ladies Auxiliary. Deeply within her very being, Grandma felt the words of John McCrae’s tribute, “In Flander's Field”:
“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….
If ye break faith with us, who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.”
Although dedication to Memorial Day and what it really means is not as strong as was my Grandmother’s, I get a Poppy every year. But unfortunately, what was conceived as a day to remember and pay special honor to our fallen war heroes has become just another Federal Three Day Week-End.
It’s difficult to teach children that Memorial Day has special significance when no societal effort is taken to support that awareness. I feel, as the VFW said about Congress taking over Memorial Day in 1971, that: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance."
The younger generation hasn’t really been exposed to war or to the real defenders of freedom. Relatively few of them have lost loved ones to the ravages of evil men who would deprive them of their Liberty. When the focus of Memorial Day is a barbecue and frivolity, the meaning of defending Liberty is reduced to commenting on the waving flags dutifully placed in front lawns by the Boy Scouts . . . as a fund-raiser. It’s hard to get uninvolved people interested in what Memorial Day should mean.
We could make Memorial Day more meaningful. We could celebrate it on its original May 30 day. Then, “specialness” might be returned to honoring those to whom we owe so much.
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