I wasn't going to post this today, but I'm unlikely to get near a machine on Sunday

"They shall not grow old, as we who are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them."

Except that they have, and in a few years or so, we probably won't.

I was going to say something here comparing that war to the current unpleasantness, but instead something about Remembrance Day services at school. We had a cadet corps, buglers and a pipe band. All the old solemn imperialist hymns, and the tunes of glory. It'd have had a nasty jingoistic taste, if it wasn't for the fact that the school hall was the War Memorial, with enormous lists of names at either end, and around the walls, pictures of the ones who died.

The pictures from the early part of the war were much of a muchness. Young men, in full uniform, smiling, but obviously ready to go off on this great (or should that be "awfully big") adventure. Later, they looked younger and more serious. When I was last back, they looked like children. And now I find myself wondering if the pictures are still there, or if they ended up in a skip somewhere...

Damn, I hated that school, but some bits were more moving than others.