I know that Canuck is not around right now, so as way of marking this Rememberance Day, I thought I post a "Thank You" to all the Canadian vets and their families for their sacrifices they have made helping Britain in our darkest hours.



"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them".

They fought and some died for their homeland
They fought and some died now it’s our land
Look at his little child, there’s no fear in her eyes
Could he not show respect for other dads who have died?

Take two minutes, would you mind?
It’s a pittance of time
For the boys and the girls who went over
In peace may they rest, may we never forget why they died.
It’s a pittance of time

God forgive me for wanting to strike him
Give me strength so as not to be like him
My heart pounds in my breast, fingers pressed to my lips
My throat wants to bawl out, my tongue barely resists

But two minutes I will bide
It’s a pittance of time
For the boys and the girls who went over
In peace may they rest, may we never forget why they died.
It’s a pittance of time

Read the letters and poems of the heroes at home
They have casualties, battles, and fears of their own
There’s a price to be paid if you go, if you stay
Peace is fought for and won in numerous ways

Take two minutes would you mind?
It’s a pittance of time
For the boys and the girls all over
May we never forget our young become vets
At the end of the line it’s a pittance of time

It takes courage to fight in your own war
It takes courage to fight someone else’s war
Our peacekeepers tell of their own living hell
They bring hope to foreign lands that the hatemongers can’t kill.

Take two minutes, would you mind?
It’s a pittance of time
For the boys and the girls who go over
In peacetime our best still don battle dress
And lay their lives on the line.
It’s a pittance of time

In Peace may they rest, lest we forget why they died.
Take a pittance of time

CHeck this website and listen to the song under video.http://www.terry-kelly.com/pittance.htm#

Thanks

and God Bless all those who never give up...

Touching poem. Don't just take a pittance of time..... When you buy a poppy use real money not a handful of loose change. I handed a veteran a ten dollar bill for poppies for my two little girls and he said "I'm sorry sir I don't have change" It seems a lot of people give quarters and loonies. If every Canadian gave 10 or 20 bucks think of what it would mean for our veterans? They gave so much for our freedom it's time for everyone to step up.

the chef

As a grandson, son and nephew of both WWI and WWII Canadian volunteer vets; six men in my family served and four of them were injured in the course of their duties, I am very proud to be a Canadian. As it happens, some 1.7 million Canucks served in WWI and WWII and, of these, more than 112,000 lost their lives, an enormous sacrifice for a young nation with a relatively small population. This country STILL is impacted in a negative fashion by this tragedy in which our finest youths of their generations were lost to us, Newfoundland is perhaps the most egregious example of this.

I thank PeteE for his typically gentlemanly comments; since he served in H.M.'s Forces in one of the most legendary infantry regiments of "the thin red line"; his gratitude is most welcome to those among us whose relatives came home shattered by wounds or, didn't come home at all.

Remembrance Day is the single, most sacred date in the entire year and it should be totally non-commercial and apolitical............a change from today's situation. I agree with CalgaryChef, I manage to find a substantial donation every year and consider this my duty.

Thanks Pete!

Cheers,
Canuck

Canuck,

No problems mate...how did the hunting go?

Regards,

Pete

kutenay,

It is my firm belief that as part of their education, ever child in the UK should be required to visit the WW1 and WW2 battlefields in Europe, particularly the various Cemeteries & War Memorials.

I am not ashamed to say that I wept as I walked around Tyne Cot Cemetry...to see the last resting places of 12,000 Commonwealth soldiers, was a very, very, moving experience.

More so when you realised many were no more than boys and were so far from home and families when they died.

It really is imperative we never forgot what these boys went through, and that we continue to honour them, along with later generations who fought in WW2 and Korea ect...

Regards,

Pete

I strongly agree and would make this aspect of our history mandatory for study by students throughout the entire school year. Currently, history is not a mandatory subject in B.C. schools and the ignorance of the younger generation demonstrates this only too well.

I know about Tyne Cot Cemetery as it was here that most of the members of my late grandfather's battalion were buried; he was an officer with the 21st. Battalion (Eastern Ontario), C.E.F. and commanded No. 9 Platoon at Passchendaele. He came home missing one lung and parts of his legs and went right back to work without any pension, etc.; he died within 20 years as a result of being gassed. I heard about this from my late mother every single day until she died as she was 16 when her dad passed on.

I have never been there and my mother who went back to England to visit for the first time since 1939 absolutely refused to go to France and Belgium. Considering that both her father and uncle had been officers with the C.E.F. and all of her brothers were in WWII, I can understand why. When I think of the Somme, Passchendaele and The Hindenburg Line where we lost tens of thousands of Canadian boys, I often wonder exactly why we of the Commonwealth ALWAYS seem to be in the thick of it....and then I think of Auschwitz, Majdanek, Chelmno, Vorkuta and The Burma Road and I understand, heartrending as it is.............I think more of you for having wept.

It is sad to see young people going on with their lives without knowing about the land they are walking on, sacrifices of young man and woman who choose to do it, so we can enjoy our life.
Yes, schools should do more, but I always ask myself, do I do enough?
On Nov 11th, my two children were part of Remembrance presentation at their school. My younger one, she recite Lieut.-Col. John McCrae poem - In Flanders Fields for the whole school, which made me so proud, and other one was singing.

I tried to explain to them that what happen was a necessary for our freedom, freedom of those who don't believe in oppression of any kind.
They ask me about my grandfathers participating in the II WW and they were happy to hear the story.