Thanks Marilyn, now my Memorial Day is complete. Frances ----- Original Message ----- From: marilyn E B To: gen-newbie ; Genealogy-Computers-Chat ; Internet Genealogy ; AN-INTERNET-FAMILY@GOOGLEGROUPS.COM ; Memory Lane Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2011 8:49 PM Subject: [AIF] Years Past - "In Flander's Field" In years gone by we would often post memories and information of the veterans both fallen and alive. Not seeing any of that this year. Another tradition has been the post by Val concerning memorizing "In Flander's Field" with Val's permission I am reposting it for those of us who would not find the day complete without it. Also, those who are new may find this moving. I am including more information from Val concerning the author. ****************************************** Tho i know that the Memorial Day weekend in the USA is arriving shortly, in our family it will always be May 30th... Not May 20th or May 31st or May 21st...but May 30th. And, with it comes the vision of the valentine standing in the doorway between our dining room and the kitchen. Hands at my sides with mother at the kitchen sink, listening to my recital.... and every once in a while, she would turn to face me, dishcloth in hand and voice and act out the proper inflection, stress the importance of the poem, the importance of the GIFT. ....In Flanders fields the poppies blow NO VALENTINE, FIRST YOU SAY THE TITLE "IN FLANDERS FIELDS' THEN YOU PAUSE JUST EVER SO SLIGHT AND T-H-E-N YOU START THE POEM.... NOW YOU TRY......... In Flanders Fields......pause... In Flanders fields the poppies blow..... VALENTINE, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN BY THAT? POPPIES BLOW? WELL, IT IS BECAUSE THE POPPIES, JUST LIKE THE ONES THAT WE GET FROM THE VETERANS AT THE STREET CORNERS on Memorial Day ARE THROUGHOUT THE FIELDS ALL OVER IN FLANDERS.... FLANDERS? THAT IS IN BELGIUM... ACTUALLY, FLANDERS is BELGIUM..... YOU CAN FIND IT ON THE MAP LATER THIS AFTERNOON..... OKAY, GO...... Between the crosses, row on row VALENTINE.... PICTURE IT, WHITE CROSSES IN STRAIGHT, PERFECT ROWS, ALL EXACTLY THE SAME...... LINED UP PERFECTLY IN WHATEVER DIRECTION YOU LOOK.... HUGE CEMETERIES, NOT ONE, BUT MANY, THE ONLY THING WE EVER TOOK FROM ANY COUNTRY WE FOUGHT IN, LAND FOR OUR SOLDIERS......... NOW GO AHEAD..... That mark our place; and in the sky DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS? THE MEN DIED... THEY ARE BURIED ON THIS GROUND WHERE THERE WERE MASSES FIGHTING.... AND NOW THE LARKS, THE BIRDS, ARE FLYING AND SINGING OVERHEAD AS IF NOTHING TERRIBLE HAPPENED AT ALL..... THAT THE GUNS, THE FIGHTING IS BUT A SLICE OF TIME.... AND THE SONDS OF THESE BIRDS IS LOST TO THOSE THAT HAVE FALLEN.... The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago V, THIS IS WHERE THE POEM CONFIRMS TO YOU THAT THE SOLDIERS HAVE DIED, FIGHTING AND DYING.... BUT WERE ONCE YOUTHFUL AND HAD LOVING PARENTS AND LOVING FRIENDS AND LOVED OTHERS AND LIVED IN DIFFERENT WORLDS AND SAW THE BEAUTY OF LIFE..... NOW, THAT IS ALL LOST TO THEM.... AND THEY ARE FOREVER NOW IN BELGIUM - IN FLANDERS FIELDS. 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: NO VALENTINE! TAKE UP OUR QUARREL WITH THE FOE... SAY IT WITH SUCH STRESS, ALMOST ANGER, WITH A PASSION THAT YOU JUST CANNOT LOSE THE BATTLE...YOU MUST WIN!... NOW YOU TRY IT.... Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; NAH, TRY IT AGAIN..... SAY IT AS ONE LONG SENTENCE ALMOST AS IF YOU WILL RUN OUT OF BREATHE SAYING THE SENTENCE....... TAKE UP OUR QUARREL WITH THE FOE, TO YOU FROM FAILING HANDS WE THROW THE TORCH!!!! AND THEN VERY SERIOUSLY AND DELIBERATELY SAY .... ......BE YOURS TO HOLD IT HIGH..... LIKE YOU HAVE BUT A SLIGHT BREATHE TO TELL A HELPING SOLDIER BENDING OVER A FALLEN COMRADE THAT THEY MUST CARRY ON THE MISSION..... YOUR TURN..... Take up our quarrel with the foe; To you our failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high.... V, THESE NEXT LINES... YOU HAVE TO SPEAK TO YOUR AUDIENCE WITH THE INTENT THAT IF THE PEOPLE DO NOT LEARN FROM THEIR LOSS, THEN WAR WILL HAVE BEEN WORTHLESS, THAT THE FALLEN WILL HAVE FOUGHT FOR NOTHING... THAT THEY GAVE UP BEAUTIFUL LOVE AND BEAUTIFUL DAYS FOR NAUGHT....THAT THEY SUFFERED AND NOTHING HAS BEEN GAINED....AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOUR SPEECH MUST SOMEHOW HAVE JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SOFTNESS THAT IS RESPECTFUL... GIVE IT A TRY..... If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. This poem has always been a tether to my mother... not because of the conversation, the instruction, the whysNwherefores, because there were many poems that we practiced together and recited to each other... but because her father was in World War I and tho not in Belgium was in the Argonne.... and returned a very saddened man, very much affected by post traumatic stress, but with not a single source for help..... At the time, i knew nothing of my alcoholic grandfather... I did not learn about his efforts in World War I until well after his mal-nutrition death in the 1950's... and tho i know my mother knew he was in the war,- which is why i think she had a special feeling for this poem - she did not know about his efforts until only a few days before her own death... So, you can all know, that when i reach for the several poppies on those street corners this coming weekend, i will be reciting this poem, OUT LOUD with inflection and the words of my mother will be playing in the background.... In Flanders Fields 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. The name of John McCrae (1872-1918) may seem out of place in the distinguished company of World War I poets, but he is remembered for what is probably the single best-known and popular poem from the war, "In Flanders Fields." He was a Canadian physician and fought on the Western Front in 1914, but was then transferred to the medical corps and assigned to a hospital in France. He died of pneumonia while on active duty in 1918. His volume of poetry, In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, was published in 1919. http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/McCrae.html<http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/McCrae.html> ****************************** he was 45 when he died a few years after this was written of a pneumonia never returning to Canada walking. it took him about 20 mintues to write and was originally to be called "We are the dead". He wrote it a day after a student of his 22 years old, had been blown to bits, his pieces collected by others and brought back to the field hospital in a pinned up blanket. He was sitting on the back on an ambulance after a day in surgery....Crumpled it up and tossed it...... In flanders Ffields, the cemetery, was far from where the Lt Coll wrote this poem. That cemetery still does exist but is surrpounded by buildings and factories and streets and is not very large. Based on images now being added to the web, we can understand that even in the trenches, poppies, were blooming. In places where the seeds were just seeing the light of day since being buried a jazillion of years earlier..... Everywhere and in the least likely of places...... I have the Memorial Day poppies i get each year. They are adding up and to the flag I wave each day, I will add another ribbon with monday's date on it. ...People should understand that McCrae was not a pacifist, not against war. He wrote a poem that captured his feelings about the people who were dying in the war in a place far from their home.....He was however, dedicated to the opinion that if a war is being fought, fight it with everything you've got and fight it to win until the idea that started it all prevails. I think, most in wars think this way..If there needs to be a war, dont skimp on the tools, orf the maneuvering or the war intelligence. Fight it to win it. I suppose that most people fight wars thinking that their idea/ideal is the right way. So, on that premise, even for the enemy soldiers who fight for their leaders, I give Memorial but there is only One Land of the Free and Home of the Brave and for those of this country who fought to protect that, came home and tried to make a life without the interference of war and war's terror, and for those who did not return as they had left, or cam home under the red white and blue, I thank you.... ******************************** All of the above is from Val. I just wish each and every one of you a Happy Memorial Day. Marilyn -- "