No caps here. I need a short break from ISD 709 before I return to the CAPS. This one will be more like Taps.
Last week I wanted to remark upon the remarkable display that the British had set up at the Tower of London to commemorate the 800,000 fallen soldiers from World War I. There are cenotaphs (memorials to the war dead) in almost every British, Scottish, Canadian and Australian town of any size such were the losses from the “Great War.” The US with a larger population got off a lot easier having entered the war three years after its commencement.
Red ceramic poppies were cast for every lost Brit in that war and can be seen spilling over the walls of the Tower of London and into the dry moat surrounding it most pounded into the ground. Its a striking sight.
I’ve made much of my Grandfather George S. Robb as any search in the blog for a reference to his name will make clear. The Great War made him in a great many ways. His alma mater Park College, now University has made much of him as well and I’ve blogged about that too. On Veteran’s Day I put up our flag to greet the traffic. The following day I got a long tube parcel in the mail. It was from Park College which was letting my grandfather’s descendents know that they had set up an endowment to honor the Great War at America’s National Memorial to the Great War in neighboring Kansas City
When Park College began rescuing my Grandfather’s history from the attic a few years ago I took a wonderful trip to Park to be a part of their ceremonies. As part of my jaunt we got a guided tour of the World War One Memorial which is a gem of a museum under the great Cenotaph.
Like the British memorial below a drawbridge into the KC memorial there was a field of poppies representing those that bloomed across all the battlefields in the years after the Armistice brought the fighting to an end. Artificial lapel poppies have been sold every year by a diminishing cadre of veterans and their supporters who use them to raise money for veterans.
My Mother insisted that my Grandfather’s name be handed on to me and I did the same for my son although his is a first name whereas my Robb landed in the middle of my name. Now I’ve got a nice scroll to frame indicating that our esteemed predecessor has been suitably acknowledged by the Great American Museum to the War he fought in.
