Every year on November 11, people in the United States celebrate Veterans Day. The holiday honors veterans, or people who served in the U.S. military. The day especially honors those veterans who died while fighting in a war.
In Flanders Fields
-John McCrae
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.
Members of both sides of my family served in many conflicts from the Revolutionary War on. My collage honors members of my paternal side who served bravely. Starting at the bottom left, my great grandfather, Lewis, Civil War, Top left and the painting in the middle, my grandfather Clare, WWI, France, Top right, his older brother, Leon who was killed in action as they served together. Leon died in my grandfather's arms at a battlefield aid station in 1918, making us a Gold Star Family. Bottom Left, my father, Ralph, who served in India as a member of the US Army Air Forces, WWII, CBI (China, Burma, India), Air Transport Command, servicing the planes flown by the brave Hump Pilots.
For the Record,
This day came in cold. We're celebrating my sister-in-law's 66th Birthday with the family this afternoon, pizza and cake with Nora & Hunty
I retired from public school teaching after happily spending twenty eight years playing in Kindergarten. Now I fill my days watching cat antics, taking endless...
