Veteran’s day is this upcoming Thursday, November 11th. Veteran’s day is always on November 11th.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, World War I ended. That was over a century ago- in 1918. It was originally Armistice Day, probably for about as long as WWI was described unironically as “The War to End All Wars”.
Eisenhower renamed it Veteran’s Day in 1954- not quite a decade after the end of World War II.
For about four years in the early seventies Veteran’s day was moved to May. President Ford moved it back to November in 1975 and it has remained there since. The Canadian Equivalent, Remembrance Day, occurs at roughly the same time (Well- it occurs at the same time in most Canadian Provinces; Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba don’t actually treat it as an official holiday and Nova Scotia recognizes it at a different time).
The VFW in Eureka will be serving a Veteran’s Day Meal from 12PM-3PM. Veterans eat free -otherwise it’s $7.50 a plate.
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae
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:
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
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.”
Trego's Mountain Ear 