It is delicate, shades of orange and red catching the sunlight. Its outermost parts so soft and nearly transparent that they defy anything man can manufacture. Too often these marvels of the floral world are associated with heroin, but to a generation gone and one rapidly aging, they mean far more.
In 1956 while a sixth grader at Thomas A. Hendricks School, it was a joy to walk down the hall from to the art room. There, Frances Liles always had a project for us. To this day, I use many of the methods she taught. Our civic projects were varied, but the one that sticks in my mind is the poster contest sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
My generation, born in the 1940s, heard whispered comments about “The War to End All Wars” (World War I). Later, when adults, we would learn the horrors of mustard gas and the trenches. But, as innocent children, we learned the simple respect for the American soldier that would follow us for the rest of our lives.
In the spring, the blackboard (and it was black at that time!) would remind us of the Poppy Poster Contest and our minds would whirl with ideas. I made my last entry in sixth grade and I can still see it in my mind’s eye.
A white cross centered on the paper, a metal US Army helmet draped on the top and a spray of poppies at its base. I wish I had saved it. Even after 55 years, I feel the power of its message.
The VFW will be selling its poppies this weekend across America in anticipation of Memorial Day. I knew it as Decoration Day and it dates to
5 May 1868, and General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and his General Order No. 11. Its beginning was 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The name changed in 1971 and is celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May
(The Congressional National Holiday Act of 1971).
Watch for flashes of red and smiles from men holding them this coming weekend. They will be there, as devoted and dependable as ever. Veterans will stand in malls, outside big box stores and groceries, on street corners and along thoroughfares. The locales are varied. Sleepy hamlet or large city, the message is the same. Honor our veterans. They fought proudly around the world to safeguard strangers. They won your enduring freedom and put your lives before theirs. Teach the children. We have lost the fervor once felt for the military and that is a sad commentary on the public condition.
The small paper flowers, made by disabled and needy veterans in VA hospital facilities across the nation, help fund worthwhile efforts. Monies from their sale finance the maintenance of state and national veterans’ rehabilitation and service programs as well as partially support the VFW National Home for orphans and widows of our nation’s veterans. It only takes a moment to stop and pay respect to those selling the poppies. Won’t you help them in this time-honored effort?
The tiny flowers reflect a promise began in the 1920s. Here is the precise history taken from the VFW website:
The VFW conducted its first poppy distribution before Memorial Day in 1922, becoming the first veterans’ organization to organize a nationwide distribution. The poppy soon was adopted as the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.
It was during the 1923 encampment that the VFW decided that VFW Buddy Poppies be assembled by disabled and needy veterans who would be paid for their work to provide them with some form of financial assistance. The plan was formally adopted during the VFW’s 1923 encampment. The next year, disabled veterans at the Buddy Poppy factory in Pittsburgh assembled VFW Buddy Poppies. The designation “Buddy Poppy” was adopted at that time.
In February 1924, the VFW registered the name “Buddy Poppy” with the U.S. Patent Office. A certificate was issued on May 20, 1924, granting the VFW all trademark rights in the name of Buddy under the classification of artificial flowers. The VFW has made that trademark a guarantee that all poppies bearing that name and the VFW label are genuine products of the work of disabled and needy veterans. No other organization, firm or individual can legally use the name “Buddy” Poppy, and partially supports the VFW National Home for orphans and widows of our nation’s veterans.
Why the poppy? It quickly became associated with war after the publication of a poem written by Col. John McCrae of Canada. The poem, “In Flander’s Field,” describes blowing red fields among the battleground of the fallen. Flanders Fields is the name of World War I battlefields in the medieval County of Flanders, spanning portions of southern Belgium and northwest France.
And so, among all the flowers that evoke the memories and emotions of war we recognize the red poppy. After nearly 90 years, the poppy reminds us of a war that cost millions of lives. Touted to be the last of the wars that man would see, it was not. The VFW has raised millions of dollars to support of veterans’ welfare and the well being of their dependents.
Be a patriot. Buy a poppy. Then, take a little time to read the poem that inspired it all.
In Flander’s Field
by 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.