Get A Poppy

This is poppy week in Canada. You can buy a poppy anywhere. It's a small price to pay for our freedom and democracy here in Canada. I think I am a bit passionate about this. My Dad was in the armed forces. When I was a child, I didn't appreciate it, but we lived in Europe and visited the Canadian war cemeteries ... and yes, the poppies grow there. My big brother and I played in destroyed war bunkers. (Hey we were kids, what did we know?) We saw bones and skulls and other weird things. Soldiers with machine guns were stationed on street corners. It was only when we got back to Canada did we understand what "normal" was. I was at school one morning on November 11th in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba when we were introduced to guy in a wheelchair. He had no legs; just stumps. It happened when he went to Europe to fight the Nazis. Suddenly the poppy thing made sense to me. We cannot forget. I got my poppy. You get yours. (jeez do I always squint like that?)