| |
The tin tab buddy poppy will be available October 1st. |
THE BUDDY POPPY. The Buddy Poppy, unlike the California State Flower, is red. Since 1915, during WWI, the red poppy has grown wild on the battlefields of France, Belgium and the Turkish battlefields on the peninsula of Gallipoli. In November of 1919, Miss Monia Belle Michael, an American Women, on duty at the YMCA Overseas War Secretaries’ Headquarters in New York, read Canadian Army, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s poem entitled "In Flanders Field”, also known as "We Shall Not Sleep”. On that day she vowed always to wear a red poppy of Flanders Field as a sign of remembrance. Also on that day Monia wrote a poem entitled, "We Shall Keep the Faith”. Since 1920 the red Memorial Poppy has been known as the United States’ National Emblem of Remembrance.
From 1919 until 1922, the red poppy was used by many countries as a fundraiser for veterans. In 1923 The Veterans of Foreign Wars agreed American Veterans of the Great War could also benefit from making and selling the red Memorial Poppy. In February 1924, the name "BUDDY POPPY” was registered as a U.S. Patent. In May 1924, a certificate was issued to grant trademark rights to the Veterans of Foreign Wars for the manufacture of genuine "Buddy Poppies”. Since that time, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars have distributed Buddy Poppies, usually on Armistice Day, now known as Memorial Day in May and on Veterans Day in November.
|
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
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. |
WE SHALL KEEP THE FAITH
Oh! You who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
and holding high, we keep the Faith
with All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
that grows on fields where valor led;
it seems to signal to the skies
that blood of heroes never dies,
but lends a luster to the red
of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
we wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
we’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
In Flanders Fields we fought |
Stop by the Post for a Buddy Poppy or catch us at a booth out in town.
