Lest we forget

Someone remarked to me the other day that Remembrance (Armistice) Day is now kept much more enthusiastically in England than he remembered it. He is perhaps a decade and a half younger than me. I remembered Armistice Day being quite big, I told him. Buttressed as it was by the poppies of Flanders field, it is one of those childhood things that was quite big for me (in the 50s). He however ( a child of the sixties growing up in the 70 s &8os) was part of a time when these things were held in some disdain.
Everyone notes the same about ANZAC day.
I have listened to the Dawn service already; and there are a myriad of cars outside my window...even parked in our driveway!! attending the Blackwood wreath laying.
It is interesting to note the ebb and flow. Growing up in the shadow of the War it loomed large in people's minds, but the economic rationalists put it behind them.
Now we are facing a resurgence. It says a lot about people's state of mind I suspect. We are once again putting aside our carefree hearts and picking up the mantle of sombre reflection of life.
AAAAhhh enough of that.......
It is interesting to note (here) that when you Google 'Flanders' in the images you get more pictures of Ned Flanders from The Simpsons than you do of Flanders Field.