[Peter Ansoff]

Veterans' Day is a solemn occasion, when we remember those who gave or risked their lives to defend our country. Our Canadian friends celebrate it as Rememberance Day, and we are flying the US and Canadian flags today in honor of veterans from both nations. Our third flag pole is bare (no streamer) in memory of those who are not with us.

There is room for humor even on such a serious occasion as this one, and I thought I'd share a little item from my personal family history. My great-grandfather was a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, he joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), which was a very powerful Union veterans' association. The GAR had an elaborate organizational structure; the local units were called "posts" and had individual numbers (somewhat like the modern VFW). Buried in my great-grandfather's papers was a little poem that he apparently wrote about the GAR in the 1890s. The original is not signed or dated, but it's in his handwriting on the stationery of the Treasury Department, where he worked. Anyone who has had to deal with administrative bureaucracy can appreciate it, I think.

There's a GAR post in the shimmering moon,
But it is ever so far away;
Each comrade can there blow his own bassoon,
Can boast of his bravery from night until noon,
And swell himself up like the tail of a coon,
But it is ever so far away.

In this Post which is known as 10,001
The comrades are happy & chock full of fun,
But it is ever so far away;
Jealousy, selfishness, suspicion & care
Are things which the comrades know nothing of there.
To quarrel & bicker no one would dare,
But it is ever so far away.

In this wonderfull [sic] post, on that moonlit sea,
Which is ever so far away,
The work is all done by a committee,
All lively as crickets, no one lazee
For they are all select substitutes, see?
But - they are ever so far away.

-- CAPT Edward Webster, ex USV/USCT, ca. 1890