Reminded by a gent on a.n.other forum that the 2007 appeal is about to "hit the streets" in the UK.

I would imagine this largely goes without saying but...
Support it as much as you can!

As was said over there:
"There is now a new generation of soldiers that really needs our help."

RBL Homepage:
The Royal British Legion - Home

Cheers,
Adam.

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It's only the Internet.

You aren't going to have the same "White Poppy" nonsense of last year, are you?

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In short,
I bloody well hope not!

Hasn't really been that big an issue for a while though, perhaps late 80's/ early 90's when that particular abberation flowered most strongly, and even then not widely.

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It's only the Internet.

I wonder if the one I placed last year is still there....

A small 8th AF Remembrance

Maybe I'll have to go back and take a look.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Sorry if this offends anyone but what are the poppies for?

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The Muslim Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands..." — Mohamed Akram. http://jihadwatch.org/

Read here.

Remembrance Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Man of the Year 1942

Regards, Richard

They squeeze the juice, extract the heroin and have a great party for all the veterans, get full of hallucinations and false memories and have the nerve to call it Rememberance Day.

Why do you think Afghanistan is crawling with Brits?

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Well I heard a suggestion on the radio that gays should have there own poppy, a yellow one.

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Man of the Year 1942

Regards, Richard

No offence whatsoever!

The Flower has been a symbol of blood/sacrifice for a very long time, it also grows vigorously in recently churned up ground. This meant entire swathes of the WW1 battlefields were reclaimed by seas of Poppies.

Postwar in America, the UK & other places people began selling poppies as remembrance tokens, I'm not sure to what extent the tradition survives in the US but in Great Britain we have small paper facsimiles of poppies exchanged for donations to the Royal British Legion (Our veterans Charity). The period of wearing lasts roughly from now up to the 11th of the 11th. wreaths of poppies are lain, Lancaster bombers full of poppies fly over dropping thousands of them and at the annual 'Festival of Remembrance' a shower of poppies falls from the Albert Hall's roof, one for every life lost in war... it takes a very long time.

For us, they're inextricably entwined with remembrance.

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It's only the Internet.

For our North American members.

THE ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION -- Poppy & Remembrance » All About the Poppy

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Poppies still flower on the old battlefields every year between May and November. These from Normandy and the Somme.

Attached Images

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Paul Reed
Webmaster - Battlefields of WW2- http://www.ww2battlefields.info
D Day Ancestors: The British Army in Normandy - http://www.ddayancestors.com

Well I put a poppy in my sig which will remain there for a while and when I see anyone collecting money and giving out poppy's I for one will contribute to this very good course.

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Man of the Year 1942

Regards, Richard

Good idea Richard, I have also added a poppy to my signature.

Whenever i visit Normandy i always put a poppy or cross at each of the cemetaries and battle sites that i visit.

Never forget.

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Regards
John

"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see" - Winston Churchill

I did my bit today as I made my contribution.

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Man of the Year 1942

Regards, Richard

2008 Poppy appeal now running.
Give what you can.

2008 Poppy fund
CWGC

Cheers,
Adam.

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It's only the Internet.

This is incorrect, the poppy of Remeberance Day is a different sub-species and more commonly a "weed" where it grows in Europe. A pretty one, but a weed none the less. Of course a "weed" is just a "plant out of place", but the poppy in western Europe has no intrinsic value as a plant (other than holding loose soil together and combating erosion in a natural habitat.) In purpose tilled soil it is an intrusive weed.

The Opium poppy is about twice the size, and its center bulb is about the size of a shot glass interior dimension, and it also has many more leaves surrounding its center.

BTW, the idea of giving away poppies was an American lady's idea originally, it was then transplanted to Europe to raise money for their vet. orgainizations. That was the object here as well, originally the "poppy" was made of cloth not paper, but that proved too expensive eventually.

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Happy Trails,
Clint.

on the poppy on Rememberance Day, and Veterans Day here in the US. Since Dr. MaCrae's poem has been posted, I shall post America's answers:

The American; R.W. Lilliard’s response when America joined "The Great War". This was in reply to Dr. John MaCrae’s ( Flanders Fields); named:

America's Answer

Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead.
The fight that ye so bravely led
We've taken up. And we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep
With a cross to mark his bed,
In Flanders Fields.

Fear not that ye have died for naught.
The torch ye threw to us we caught.
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And Freedom's light shall never die!
We've learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders Fields.

This next actually happened on 9th November 1918, two days before the Armistice. On a meeting with war-secretaries of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Organisation) she decided to buy 25 poppies to be used at the upcoming remembrance. This American woman (Moina Michael), started the trend of little poppies being sold on "Armistice Day" by making hand made cloth poppies and distributed them to fellow Americans to wear in remembrance of the war.

She had served in the Red Cross in Europe, and was deeply touchted by John McCrae's poem (Flander's Fields), and Armistice Day itself came to be known as "Poppy Day" for a time in America. Then I believe it was a French woman, Madame Guerin, who carried the "poppy" torch across the Atlantic. The proceeds from the sale of the poppies in the States and Canada were all donated to the veterans’ charities. In France Madame Guerin used the money from the hand made poppies to benefit the children in the war torn parts of France. From France the tradition and sale of the poppies went into Great Briain.

You might enjoy this site which chronicles the development of the paper poppy sold by veterans today:

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/umbrella/ffpopmoina.htm

or this one:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6133312.stm

Notice the similarity in some lines of Lilliard’s work with this next poem, I don’t know who copied whom, or which was published first. But, M. Michael was also a poetess, and perhaps fostered by her own reading of Dr. John McCrae’s work. Here follows her poem to recognize and support McCrae’s earlier poem:

We shall keep the faith

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders' Fields
Sleep sweet - to rise anew;
We caught the torch you threw,
And holding high we kept
The faith with those who died.

We cherish, too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led.
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

But lends a luster to the red
On the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders' fields.
And now the torch and Poppy red
Wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught:
We've learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders' fields.

This final offering was penned by another poet, unknown nationality but I suspect either Canadian or British since "Rememberance Day" is their name for Nov. 11th, one Don Crawford (poem untitled to my knowledge):

"Please wear a poppy," the lady said
And held one forth, but I shook my head.
Then I stopped and watched as she offered them there,
And her face was old and lined with care;
But beneath the scars the years had made
There remained a smile that refused to fade.
A boy came whistling down the street,
Bouncing along on care-free feet.
His smile was full of joy and fun,
"Lady," said he, "may I have one?"
When she's pinned it on he turned to say,

"Why do we wear a poppy today?"
The lady smiled in her wistful way
And answered, "This is Remembrance Day,
And the poppy there is the symbol for
The gallant men who died in war.
And because they did, you and I are free.
That's why we wear a poppy, you see.

"I had a boy about your size,
With golden hair and big blue eyes.
He loved to play and jump and shout,
Free as a bird he would race about.
As the years went by he learned and grew,
And became a man as you will, too.

"He was fine and strong, with a boyish smile,
But he'd seemed with us such a little while
When war broke out and he went away.
I still remember his face that day
When he smiled at me and said, Goodbye,
I'll be back soon, Mom, so please don't cry.

"But the war went on and he had to stay,
And all I could do was wait and pray.
His letters told of the awful fight,
I can see it still in my dreams at night,
With the tanks and guns and cruel barbed wire,
And the mines and bullets,
The bombs and fire.

"Till at last, at last, the war was won,
And that's why we wear a poppy son."
The small boy turned as if to go,
Then said, "Thanks, lady, I'm glad to know.
That sure did sound like an awful fight,
But your son, did he come back all right?"

A tear rolled down each faded check;
She shook her head, but didn't speak.
I slunk away in a sort of shame,
And if you were me you'd have done the same;
For our thanks, in giving, if oft delayed,
Though our freedom was bought,
And thousands paid!
So when we see a poppy worn,
Let us reflect on the burden borne,
By those who gave their very all
When asked to answer their country's call
That we at home in peace might live.
Then wear a poppy! Remember - and give!

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Happy Trails,
Clint.