In Flanders Field the poppies grow
Beneath the Cross, punctuated by Stars of David that mark the graves of sweethearts, fiancées, husbands, brothers, fathers, grandfathers and uncles.
Where are the monuments commemorating the women who loved them or would have loved them had they come home?
Surely Great-Aunt Melinda had a beau, but she joined the windows wearing black in honor of her father, my great-grandfather, one of the 600,000 who died in this country’s “Great War.”
Great-Uncle Foy just couldn’t wear his gas mask in France.
He lived out his life in the mental institution in Tuscaloosa.
He couldn’t be anyone’s husband.
Uncle John was blown to bits making ammunition at DuPont. We buried a little finger and some bits of skins; there is no monument for his widow and child.
In Normandy, in 1968, the crosses and Stars of David seemed to go on for miles. The French were there, reading the great monuments, nodding respectfully to us, whom they knew were Americans.
In the village restaurant several of them came and thanked us — they remembered — in 1968.
Chrys Malone Street
Marietta
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As the young folks come along and the old folks die off, the great and valiant deeds of the old folks fade.
In America today we have a population of modern day thinkers who, like other generations before them, truly do not understand the sacrifices of those who came before them. It is not a bad thing on their part. It is, sadly, the way of the world.
I was around during World War 2. The women and men of that conflict were, indeed, the greatest generation that America has produced. They did, in fact, free the majority of the world from being enslaved.
The deeds of the victors and the warriors in particular, survive the wearing of time. The love and patience and deeds of the lesser known are to later generations, essentially forgotten.
The ladies who provided doughnuts and coffee for the troops on the way to wart, the young girls who wore our country's uniforms and toiled in the background to provide the support that our men needed are a distant memory, if not totally forgotten.
Films of those years are more involved with the boys landing on the beach and fighting and dying to set other countries free are the ones that survive. There are few, if any films that show what the wonderful women of America did and how they sacrificed for our country.
Today is Memorial Day and it is intended for those who died for their country. There should be a separate Veteran's day for the many, many women who gave their all for us during those times.
If not for shows like MASH, many would not know about the heroism of American female nurses and doctors.I, also as the oldest son at home, saw my father and brother go off to war as my Mom raised four other children without Dad to help. While Dad was in the Pacific theater, my younger sister passed away. My Mom, thankfully had family, but she handled us and our the sorrow with great courage.
The only memorial I know of for those women is in the hearts and minds of those like me and we are fading away.
God bless the wonderful Moms, sisters, daughters aunts and nieces who saw us young folk through the trying times of World War 2 and the following conflicts.
God bless all the wonderful women, today, who are replicating the deeds of those women of the past whose men go to fight for their country.
I pray that all your menfolk com home in good health.
Ms. Street, could you further clarify what you were trying to express here?