Saw the last surviving soldier on TV this morning he is 105 years old still exercises with weights & walks for 1 hour every afternoon, once he's gone you know what's going to happen, there will be no need for poppies anymore as it will be found offensive by the growing number of bastards that are being allowed to take over our country & our customs. I'm so very angry and have never felt like this before in my life.
I walked past the local school this afternoon at kicking out time and none of the kids I saw were wearing poppies.
Unless, God forbid, there is another major war where tens of thousands are killed in action, I think it is a tradition that will slowly and sadly die out as the Second World War fades from living memory.
The ceremonies on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday will continue no doubt, but generally I don't think people will be interested. :'(
I've just got in from ringing at two churches, and am about to leave for our traditional quarter peal. Perhaps it's because Medway has several hundred years of history as military towns, but there's no lack of interest here. I walked across the Great Lines at 08:30, and they were busier than a normal weekday because of people obviously heading for the various parades and wreath laying. It's not just the elderly that take part in these, but middle-aged ex-servicemen through to the youngest Cubs and Brownies(my apologies for not using their correct names).
WW11 is the biggest reason to remember, but there's been no shortage of wars since. It's still sobering to look at the many family names on WW1 memorials and the next generation of them just twenty years later. I have to go to Wooburn Green to see them, but all three of my great-grandfather's brothers are listed on the memorial there which is a large part of why my sister and I are where the Wheeler name dies.