![Veterans aim to re-energize popularity of the poppy](https://millertonnews.com/media-library/a-buddy-poppy-trademarked-by-the-vfw-before-memorial-day-in-1922.jpg?id=48215373&width=980&quality=90)
A Buddy Poppy, trademarked by the VFW before Memorial Day in 1922.
Photo by Debra A. Aleksinas
NORTH CANAAN — In the days leading up to Memorial Day, it is not uncommon to find veterans groups distributing red paper poppies outside stores, gas stations and on street corners in exchange for a donation in honor of fallen soldiers and to contribute to the continuing needs of veterans and their families.
The small, crimson memorial flowers, which are hand-made by veterans, providing them financial and therapeutic benefit, even have their own annual day of recognition: The Friday before Memorial Day, May 26 this year, is National Poppy Day.
But while most people over a certain age recall the tradition of wearing a paper posy or placing a poppy on the tombstones of those who served as tributes to the fallen, those decades-old rituals have lost ground to barbecues and celebrating summer’s unofficial arrival, according to members of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and American Legion posts in the region.
From Winsted to North Canaan to Millerton, veterans and auxiliary members said they are hoping to re-energize the humble poppy’s popularity through distributions on Poppy Day, along Memorial Day parade routes and at other sites throughout the region this weekend.
Kirk Harrington, commander of the VFW Couch Pippa Post 6851 in North Canaan, said his post will kick off the annual drive the week leading up to Memorial Day by setting up poppy distribution tables in front of the Post Office and Lindell ACE hardware.
“We will also be at Stop & Shop in Canaan the weekend of Memorial Day on Saturday and Sunday,” and members of the local Girl Scout Troop will also assist by handing out poppies during the town’s Memorial Day Parade, he said.
Harrington said his post distributes between 500 and 1,000 poppies annually, and all donations benefit veterans and their families.
Pandemic put a crimp in revenue
Molly Jenks, who serves as vice president of American Legion Post 178’s Auxiliary in Millerton, said members will be distributing crepe paper poppies during the community’s annual Memorial Day Parade and in Veterans Park, as well as outside various businesses, on National Poppy Day. She said her post expects to hand out about 250 crimson flowers.
Donations are not required but are welcome and appreciated.
The amount raised annually, “depends on how many volunteers we get,” to participate and how many people attend the parade, said Jenks, noting that fewer people have been turning out for the patriotic festivities in recent years.
The pandemic put a damper on the annual event and poppy drives, and crowds have yet to be as robust as they were pre-COVID, she noted.
People tend to forget that there are soldiers currently deployed overseas, said Jenks, who are often in harm’s way.
“If you don’t know someone who is serving in the military it’s not at the forefront of your mind,” said Jenks, whose personal view “changed being married to a soldier.” She is the wife of Robert Jenks, past commander of Post 178.
All proceeds raised annually from the Millerton Post’s poppy drives are used to aid veterans and their families through distribution of gas cards, oil fill-ups to help heat their homes and mail overseas care packages, said the Auxiliary vice president.
“We sent a care package to one soldier’s wife who was home alone with a 2-year- old. It contained some tea, soap and a gift card and a note saying, ‘thinking of you’ and thanking her for her sacrifice.”
Welcomed back at Stop & Shop in Winsted
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not uncommon to see veterans seated at a small table outside of the Winsted Stop & Shop with a collection can and bundles of poppies in the days leading up to Memorial Day, greeting shoppers and youngsters. But the novel coronavirus put a halt to such social interactions until this year.
“This is the first time we will be allowed back,” said Daniel Matthews, commander of the VFW Seicheprey Post 296 in Winsted, where more than 1,000 poppies are distributed annually by members.
“The VFW requests that members distribute five poppies per member each year, and we have approximately 100 members,” noted Matthews.
“Overall, we have definitely seen an increase” in donations following a dip in revenue from 2020 to 2021, he said. A stand of VFW-trademarked “Buddy Poppy” flowers are also on display and available to the pubic year-round on the bar at the Winsted VFW headquarters.
“Typically, our Post utilizes the Stop & Shop Plaza in the days leading up to Memorial Day, and the American Legion Post in Riverton typically distributes their poppies at Tractor Supply in Barkhamsted,” the Post commander explained.
In keeping with tradition, he said, the Winsted VFW Auxiliary will be handing out poppies along the parade route during the town’s Memorial Day Parade.
Matthews stressed that every dollar received from poppy donations is used solely to care for disabled veterans, their spouses, widows and children. “We don’t use any money for paying things like the electric bill.”
Inspiring a new generation
Younger generations, in particular, appear to have lost the connection and meaning of the little red flowers, or what to do with them, something that is all too apparent when veterans start appearing at public places with their poppy bundles and collection cans.
The answer is simple, said VFW and American Legion members. Wear it proudly.
While the proper place to wear a poppy has traditionally been the left-hand side of one’s shirt, over the heart or on the lapel of one’s jacket, on the left-hand-side, putting poppies on purses baseball caps or zipper tags, or secured to rearview mirrors, is acceptable and appreciated.
History of the poppy
From the battlefield of World War I, weary soldiers brought home the memory of a barren landscape transformed by wild poppies, red as the blood that had soaked the soil. By that miracle of nature, the spirit of their lost comrades lived on, according to American Legion literature.
The poppy became a symbol of the sacrifice of lives in war and represented the hope that none had died in vain. In the U.S., the American Legion and the VFW took up the cause.
The America Legion Poppy Program started in 1920 and has continued to bloom for the casualties of all wars, its petals of paper bound together for veterans by veterans.
The American Legion brought National Poppy Day to the United States by asking Congress to designate the Friday before Memorial Day as National Poppy Day, which was officially designated as such in 2017.
Not all poppies are created equal, however.The delicate, crepe paper poppies are made for the American Legion.
The VFW’s “Buddy Poppy” flower was trademarked in 1924 and is distributed solely by VFW posts, not only on Memorial Day, but also prior to Veterans Day in November.
Originally worn to commemorate the fallen of the First World War, also known as “The Great War,” poppies are now worn in memory of those lost in every conflict since.
Both the VFW and American Legion memorial flowers trace their roots back to the haunting poem “In Flanders Fields” written by Lt. Col. John McCrae, a Canadian military doctor and artillery commander, in May of 1915 while he served on the front lines.
The famous war memorial poem’s open line refers to poppies that were the first flowers to grow in the soil from soldiers’ graves in the Flanders region of Belgium.
It ends with the line, “We shall not sleep, though poppies grow, In Flanders fields.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Red poppies symbolize resilience
Despite their cheerful appearance, poppies are technically classified as weeds.
They have grown in some of the most inhospitable of landscapes, including the war-torn battlefields in 1915. Even though the terrain was left devastated, bright crimson poppies sprouted from the wreckage come spring, like delicate beacons of hope.
Maxon Mills in Wassaic hosted a majority of the events of the local Upstate Art Weekend events in the community.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene during the Garden Tour in Amenia.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else. I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and
Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.