A bit of Beatles trivia just for today.

[maugorn]

I also posted this over on FB. No fair peeking!


Anyway, in the Beatles' song "Penny Lane" one of the vignettes describes something that gives a hint that it's happening on a particular day. What day would that be, and for extra points, what did we call it back when I was a British Schoolboy?

Comments

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray...

It's a bit gimme-ish to ask this on this particular day, no?

(I don't know about the bonus question, though.)

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) used to sell small artificial poppies with a wire stem (for looping through a buttonhole) to benefit ... well, disabled vets.

The poppy motif comes from the famous World War I poem, "In Flanders fields the poppies grow...."

I suspect the British still call this Armistice Day.

When my hometown built a new city hall in the 1930s (thanks to the New Deal) and redesigned the park in front of it, it gave pride of place to a Great War memorial with four statues representing the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the nurses. Yes, a statue of a woman!

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

Actually, you can clearly see the poppy motif if you go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11731492 and click on the video showing Britons observing two minutes of silence.

It's quite moving to see the silent tributes all across the UK. Armistice Day actually still MEANS something to the Brits. For Americans, it's more like, "So what stores are having sales today?"

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Not all Americans.

[tafkad.livejournal.com]

This.

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

Poppy Day