I remember these silk poppies from my childhood but I don't see them much anymore. And I knew nothing of their history. Then a few years ago, I met Barbara Walsh at a Highlights Founders Workshop. I still remember Barb's passion about her father's WWII experience and Moina Michael, who honored him and so many other vets by starting the wearing of the poppy on Memorial Day.
Barbara wanted to tell Moina's amazing story in a book for children. After much work and commitment, her dream is about to come true. This fall, The Poppy Lady will be released by Calkins Creek books.
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Barbara and her father are featured in the following video by GA Public Broadcasting which tells the Moina story so beautifully. I think you'll see what I mean about passion - both Moina's and Barbara's!
"My dream is the same as Moina's dream. I want every American to wear a poppy and I want it to be that each time they pin that poppy on they remember what the soldiers have sacrificed for us." (Barbara Walsh, picture book author)
I don't know where I'll find a silk poppy for sale today but I bet I could make one. And the garden center could sell me the real thing - right? Thank you Barbara for the inspiration. And especially, thanks to your Dad and all the other vets and servicemen!
Great post, Joyce! I'm looking forward to reading the book.
ReplyDeleteLovely preview of what looks like a lovely book. I just came back from a Highlights workshop, so have heard the buzz, but not the background, of this book. The artwork looks spectacular and the story moving. Great post, as usual, Joyce.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post, Joyce, and wonderful video. Very touching. Thanks for sharing it--off to FB to share this post with my friends.
ReplyDeleteAnd what a gorgeous cover!
ReplyDeleteFascinating. The Flanders Fields poem seems better known in Canada and the UK than in the US. In the English village where I'm currently living, there's a woman with a little dog named Poppy--and now I'm curious to ask her if the name comes from the poem! This looks like a wonderful book!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post. I have always bought poppies from vets on this weekend because I have lots of vets in my family and because I know it helps them out financially, but never realized how it all started. Not surprised it was all started by a woman.
ReplyDeleteThe VFW always hand out poppies for donataions ... What a lovely book. I will look forward to reading it. Memorial Day really hit me hard in the cemeteries of Belgium ... all those rows and rows of crosses! We were there for the 50th anniversay of D-Day.
ReplyDeleteJoyce,
ReplyDeleteI bought a poppy as a child at school. I felt like I'd done something really special. I'm sure someone must have spoken to us about their significance, but the poppy is what I remember. Thanks for sharing this. Excellent job!
I remember the poppies from childhood, too, and men wearing them in their buttonholes. In my town, there was always a young girl chosen as "Poppy Princess" each Memorial Day. Nope, 'twas never me. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is not the image of what was printed in the Ladies'Home Journal for November 1918. Looking at a copy of it, we see in the Bauer & Black Co. advertisement, a painting known to be by American illustrator Philip Lyford, a side bar with Canadian McCrae's poem first made public in the UK in Punch December 8 1915 titled "In Flanders Fields", authorless and with careless error about the soldier poet himself. The image is of bandaged Doughboys rising to heaven singing from flames below - quite a contrast to its use in his own country by 1917 for Victory Bonds, a soldier contemplating the row-on-row white markers as described in the poem. IFF was printed in Canada during the war and in an anthology by 1916. It appears to have been taken into the States when it joined in the war by recruiters looking for British subjects. In 1917 a flood of poems "Replying" to the plea to fight on to Victory began in the US and many settings of the words to music, eg the famous Sousa. The artificial flower for wreaths and lapels was taken from wartorn France to Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand by Mme Anna Guerin originally in support of their orphans of war and proceeds shared with Returned Soldier groups as that need lessened. An interesting Reply is the one used at Arlington by Jaques of the Canadian prairies. Canada has officially worn the poppy since 1921, fixed period leading up to November 11. In time the production and profits and trademark were entrusted to the Legion.
ReplyDeleteJust read the part about Miss Michael's inspiration re the poppy and it requires some documentation.
ReplyDeleteThe writer implies that the US military did not mark the graves of their Fallen with names... leaving the old lady to be chief mourner in US remembrance. Oddly, the illustrations feature the Canadian Legion trademarked device
- and not the type of replica department stores sold in their Millinery and Notions department in that era. If anyone can find a poem that John McCrae titled as 'We Shall Not Sleep', it would be helpful. So far it seems to be the handiwork of a terrible copywriter at whatever agency Bauer & Black used at time.