Two years ago, I sounded a note of controversy (what, another one?) regarding Remembrancetide. I was taken aback by the considered, well-constructed comments (except one). Take a look at the November 2008 post and see if you agree.
Now, for more. I spotted my first poppy in Rhuthun/Ruthin on 22nd October. Just one, mind you. It was very much well ahead of the national appeal launch. Given that Remembrance Day is always the second Sunday of November, today is the latest it can ever be. Three weeks and two days of wearing poppies! Little wonder mine looks a little dog-eared. Or perhaps that's the plan: to force a second purchase. It used to be just one week but, exactly ten years ago, the season somehow lengthened to two. Now it's three. All to do with a modern recognition of our armed forces, no doubt.
In spite of this long season, yesterday remains the grand finale. In town, in Tesco, in B & M and in the Co-op. The former Artefacts, Well Street, was the centre of operation, as usual. Backed onto the Square was a big black lorry with "Help for Heroes" & poppies on the side, with a huge streetside poppy adjacent, plus a couple of further sellers by the Castle Hotel.
It was an impressive affair. It doesn't need to be for, nowadays, it's de rigueur to wear a poppy. Woe betide anyone for not wearing one. It's become an unspoken rule. You dare not be without. But it isn't a fashion statement and a donation, however larger or small, should never need to be displayed in public. And, it has to be said, there's so little real remembrance, apart, perhaps, from those who gather around the memorial at 10.45, remembering lost or injured loved ones, as they will today.
If you thought 22nd October was early for poppies, the following Monday, they were putting up the Christmas lights. But, unlike in Oxford Street London England, at least ours get to go on, on a sensible date.
Now, for more. I spotted my first poppy in Rhuthun/Ruthin on 22nd October. Just one, mind you. It was very much well ahead of the national appeal launch. Given that Remembrance Day is always the second Sunday of November, today is the latest it can ever be. Three weeks and two days of wearing poppies! Little wonder mine looks a little dog-eared. Or perhaps that's the plan: to force a second purchase. It used to be just one week but, exactly ten years ago, the season somehow lengthened to two. Now it's three. All to do with a modern recognition of our armed forces, no doubt.
In spite of this long season, yesterday remains the grand finale. In town, in Tesco, in B & M and in the Co-op. The former Artefacts, Well Street, was the centre of operation, as usual. Backed onto the Square was a big black lorry with "Help for Heroes" & poppies on the side, with a huge streetside poppy adjacent, plus a couple of further sellers by the Castle Hotel.
It was an impressive affair. It doesn't need to be for, nowadays, it's de rigueur to wear a poppy. Woe betide anyone for not wearing one. It's become an unspoken rule. You dare not be without. But it isn't a fashion statement and a donation, however larger or small, should never need to be displayed in public. And, it has to be said, there's so little real remembrance, apart, perhaps, from those who gather around the memorial at 10.45, remembering lost or injured loved ones, as they will today.
If you thought 22nd October was early for poppies, the following Monday, they were putting up the Christmas lights. But, unlike in Oxford Street London England, at least ours get to go on, on a sensible date.
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