I always loved it when my Dad took me to town and I would get a poppy. I knew they had something to do with soldiers who died, but not much else. One year he attached one to the visor in his car, and a family tradition was started. I have a small bouquet of them in my car, attached to the sun visor. some are very faded, and have held that place of honor in more that one of my vehicles. I try to get a poppy every year. I have a lot of them.
The poem was written in 1915 at the second battle of Ypres, where 10,000 Allied soldier died.
"LTC.John McCrea was serving as a doctor in the Canadian Army. He saw so many dead and so many wounded, witnessed unimaginable terror in those 17 days. he sat in the back of an ambulance, and took 20 minutes out of his precious downtime to scribble the poem out. From where he sat he could see wild red poppies growing out of a ditch. The poem was an exact deception of the scene in front of him."
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 he foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If you break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
"The poem was published on December 8th 1915 and with the red poppies has become an icon of remembering the war dead world-wide. The poppy soon was adopted as the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States and was designated the "Buddy Poppy" in 1924.".
