The Cullen Café

[Sason]

Like being a Brokie, for some of us.  

Very true, Kim.

I love my secret brokie life, can't imagine what my life would have been like without it.

[gnash]

>my secret brokie life<     

it sounds like a made for TV movie.

[Sason]

^^^^^^^^^^

 

[fritzkep]

On this day 11 November we thank our fellow veterans for their service, and remember those who have fallen for our country and our Allies.

[ingmarnicebbmt]

If Christine O'Donnell has her way.....

Oh please - never ever!

[killersmom]

Thank you to all our Veterans and their families for their service and their sacrifice. My Dad, my husband were veterans and my son is active duty Coast Guard. I am proud of all of them.

Thanks so much!

[CellarDweller115]

To all service men and women, past, present, and future, thank you.

[Nikki]

We owe our vetrans so much. My grandfather was a vet, my dad was a vet, and my son was in the Air Force in the 70s. I applaud all vets and hope they all come home soon.

[tfferg]

In Australia and the UK 11 November is commemorated as Armistice Day (The Australian equivalent of Veterans Day is ANZAC Day on 25 April.) Many people wear an artificial poppy in their lapel. In Australia they are sold in the streets by Legacy, an organization that supports the widows and children of war casualties. 11 November is not a public holiday in Australia, but schools and other organizations stop for a minute's silence at 11am and there are ceremonies at the war memorials around the country. The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne was constructed so that at 11am on the 11 November, the sun would shine directly on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier inside. I've been wondering for years how that works now that we have Daylight Saving Time.

I noticed on TV newscasts that UK politicians have been wearing their poppies for some time leading up to Armistice Day. When the UK PM David Cameron and his delegation were in China this week, they refused a request by Chinese officials to remove them. It turns out that for Chinese, poppies represent the Opium Wars in which the British forced the Chinese government to allow the import and sale of opium for non-medical purposes and the consequent addiction of millions, the establishment of the British colony of Hong Kong together with other colonial abuses. This week is the anniversary of the Second Opium War.

[tfferg]

The other day it emerged that the head of VicRoads, the state agency that among other things runs tests for drivers licences and registers vehicles, banned the 11am observance of 11 November, thinking it might offend somebody. Who, it is not clear.The Minister ordered that the minute's silence be observed and the official has apologized profusely.

Meanwhile in the Courts a man who had been convicted of firearms offences and was about to be sentenced when he along with everyone else was required to stand in silence for the Remembrance Day rite. He's a member of a family that has been involved in a feud with another crime family - the two families have been taking turns to murder each other. Thge fathr was shot down a few weeks ago. The widowed mother has issued orders for the murders to stop.

[tfferg]

A poignant piece on Remembrance Day.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/our-job-is-to-never-forget-20101112-17r2v.html

I remember when I was a child on rare family special occasions meeting elderly cousins who survived the fighting in Flanders. One had been blinded and another gassed.

Among the stuff that came from my grandmother's house were a few cheery postcards from one of her nephews on the way to the First World War, though none of them are from the battlefield areas. There were a few photos too, but none of them is labeled so I don't know who most of the people in the family albums of my grandparents time were, except for my mother's grandparents.

The article is right to recall the interwar generation of single women who lost their partners or never had a chance at forming a partnership in life.

My father was in New Guinea during WWII and had a number of periods in the Repatriation Hospital when I was a child. The wards seemed to be full broken men and their families seemed shattered.

[brianr]

Thanks Tony.
I visited Pozieres (as well as Gallipoli for Anzac day) and other western front sites in 2002. I returned to take my sister in 2007. Row after row of Commonwealth graves many "Known only unto God"  and most aged 18 to 30.
Our uncle is buried near Amiens. He was 28, my mother was only 7, when he died. My other uncle returned but, having been gassed, was always ill although he lived until the 1950's.  I only have vague memories of him. He  was at both Gallipoli and the Western Front. My grandmother died within a year of her eldest son. Although the official cause was influenza, Mum always said it was of a broken heart.
I now try to be present at the Dawn service each Anzac Day. Working in high schools in Australia it was hard to commemorate Remembrance day as it is the main exam period of the year and halls are in use while outside noise has to be kept to a minimum. There was a big service at 11am here in Dunedin but my house was being painted, perhaps next year.

[tfferg]

Ah, Brian. So many families...!

I was quite resistant to the whole ANZAC Day/ Remembrance Day hype and was also strongly influenced by the play, The One Day of the Year.

My Dad was a member of the RSL, but never went to the club, never marched in the parades, never went to any of the observances. He wasn't a drinker. He rarely spoke about the war. I suppose he wanted to put it all behind him. He only used to see one RAAF old comrade when the families visited very occasionally. I think he would have agreed with the WWI survivor quoted in the article. He was a very peaceable man.

I hated the RSL because of its spokesmen always wanting to bring back National Service and "make a man" of everybody and trumping up support for the government line on the American War in Vietnam and the Domino theory rubbish. The very vocal Bruce Ruxton in Victoria was outspoken in his homophobia too. I was amazed to find in 2002 in Dili that he was revered by the EastTimorese people - but it was because he organized support for decades without publicizing it in Melbourne for Maubere families whose men had been tortured and killed for trying to protect Australian soldiers from the Japanese. There is a cemetery of the Maubere who sacrificied their lives for Australians in WWII in Aileu in Timor Leste.

The one occasion Dad did use his RSL membership was when my dear Grade 6 teacher at Coburg West State School, Mr Rattray-Wood, got me to sit for the exam for a scholarship to Coburg High School. It was sponsored by Colin Keon-Cohen, a local solicitor member of the RS for the children of returned service people. It paid for my school books from Form 1 through Form 4, which was a big help for my struggling family.

Of later years I've been moved when visiting the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, though I would never think of going to the ANZAC Day parade in Melbourne nor would I want to go to Gelibolu (Gallipoli) on the day. I didn't go there when I visited Turkey in December and January1975. I still don't believe the hype about Gallipoli making us a nation etc. I have paid my respects at the statue of Weary Dunlop in Melbourne.

I was never interested in going to Kanchanaburi and the remains of the Death Railway here in Thailand, although I have long known the history. Phong asked me to go with them when a Japanese customer hired him to take him. The cemetery of the Allied dead and the cenotaph there is very moving too, as is an excellent museum. Phong and his customer had to wait while I took my time and read many of the gravestones (some of whom are also Known only to God and many of whom stand over the remains of terribly young boys. Although the cemetery is on the main road close to the centre of the town, it was very quiet, well maintained and free of vendors and the souvenir outlets nearer to the bridge over the River Kwai and the remains of the railway.I don't think there is any memorial to the many Asian people who died there.

I've recently read David Malouf's very good novel. The Great World, which centres on two men who survive the Burma railway and their subsequent lives and relationship  in Australia.

[brianr]

My father wore a hearing aid so, although he was in the army throughout WW2, he worked in the canteens all over Australia but never went overseas. Consequently he was not eligible to be a member of the RSL. This sometimes made me angry more for my mother's sake as her friends, being widows of returned servicemen, were eligible for so many more benefits than my mother.
When I first went to Europe in the 70's I was not interested in seeing the WW1 sites as, due to Vietnam, I was also very anti-war. Of course, I am still anti-war but although I see the first world war as complete and utter stupidity on all sides, I do feel for those who died and suffered as a result. They went under the misguided beliefs that they had to help the 'motherland' and that it would be a great adventure. Such a waste of young lives. And Australian governments of all persuasions continue this stupidity of wanting to be involved in others wars.
Thankfully New Zealand seems to be more careful, not going to Iraq and talking about leaving Afghanistan. I was not happy to see the NZ government signing new agreements with the US when Hillary Clinton was here recently and talk of a thaw in relationships which have been icy because NZ will not allow nuclear powered ships in its waters.
The press noted that Obama met with Gillard (Aust PM) in Tokyo but not Key(NZ PM). This does not worry me at all.  The US and NZ work closely in Antarctic research and this is much more important in my opinion.

[tfferg]

My parents were separated for much of the first 5 years of their marriage (I was born in April 1945 when Dad was away again.) What an ordeal it must have been, and I guess for your parents too, Brian, regardless f the fact that your father was not sent abroad. The effects on your parents' lives must have been similar in many ways to those who were sent overseas.