November 14, 2023

‘WE WILL STAND UP TO REMEMBER THE GREAT WAR’

MUSKOKA — Lest we forget war when it’s all around us daily.

Services last week reminded us again how fragile time between conflicts is.

“The Long Peace” (1945-1991) is long gone.

Salutes from the youngest to the oldest marked with solemnity and humour the lingering sadness and sometimes joys that emerged from those (these) unforgettable periods of conflict, pain and suffering.

From churches to cemeteries to cenotaphs and schools the stories were always moving, even heartbreaking.

Like At Macaulay Public School — the morning before Nov. 11 — an assembly in a gym with a large Canadian flag and almost 400 students, teachers, parents and families mixed hope with remembrance.

**A Macaulay Public School choir bows their heads after singing a hauntinly beautiful song that included the lyrics: “We will stand up to remember the Great War.”**

Two dressed-up students from each classroom quietly walked to the front of the auditorium — and a stage lined with peace symbols — to present dozens of paper wreaths pasted with red poppies lovingly hand-made.

Each was placed beneath one of two large white crosses — one of them taller than some of the pupils.

Touching as that was it was a couple of choirs comprised of the youngest who in one beautiful set of voices — led by teacher Seungu Lee —sang with patriotic fervour: “We will stand up to remember the Great War.”

And as out of the mouths of babes a video presentation lit up a screen behind them for fellow students and their families to bear witness to of what they spoke.

Next up was video version The Trews singing their hit “Highway of Heroes.”

And what an impression that made on the darkened audience, their little faces lit up by the singing and messaging on screen.

The Antigonish, Nova Scotia, band united the room with the kids shouting out in timed unison “Highway of Heroes” every time the Trews sang the song’s title lyrics.

And the band played on …

Music also united older musicians in Gravenhurst when the Bifocals Band combined their weekly rehearsal for Remembrance Day at the legion last Tuesday with “war stories” by band members that were equally poignant, even heart-warming.

It’s become a tradition now in its third year.

Georgina Winlow put down her clarinet to tell how her mother was evacuated to Belfast from London to avoid threat of bombing only to have bombs dropped on the Irish city.

She then told how she came to be.

Her mother knitted mitts for soldiers and inserted her name and address in them — thinking perhaps she’d get a letter.

She was surprised when a soldier looked her up and they got married.

Carol Ann Robinson, another clarinet player, said at the wedding of one of her relatives the church was allowed to ring its bells for the first time after the war.

Bonnie Parkhill, who plays baritone, shared a sad story about a “lovely aunt” who lived in Bracebridge in what is now an empty lot next to Oliver’s Coffee (the former Dairy Bar).

“I would drop in there on my way home for school and she’d always have a cookie for me.”

Her betrothed died “either on Armistice Day” in 1918 “or the day before when they announced it.”

One of saxophonist Ian Donaldson’s earliest memories as a child in England was “of the sky being full of metal” from planes and bombs.

He said during one air raid his mother scooped him up from his cot only to return after the “all clear” to find “a large shard of glass had fallen right in the middle of my bed.”

**Neil Hutchison with photos his dad left him from the Second World War that show German ground after Allied bomb attacks.**

Flautist Neil Hutchison showed photos of bombs exploding on German grounds, which were taken by the Allied air crew of the plane on which his dad was a tail gunner. The goal was to show the accuracy of the plane’s bombardier, which Hutchison said weren’t actually all that accurate.

He also said the bomber planes would drop war leaftlets during a run with one side showing the glory of patriotic marchers — but on the flip side photos of the horrors of war.

Tuba player Fran Harvey, who for years played in Canadian regimental reserve bands, said she’s thinking of her son who deployed to Latvia now with the regular forces, which she said “is a little too close to Ukraine for me.”

Dave Brent had the funniest story told to him by his stepfather.

The baritone player recalled him saying that on troop ships “everyone had to wear a life jacket — one of those big old pillow types that everyone hated.

“So when they got close to the coast one of the soldiers leaned over the rail and flung his life preserver out into the sea.

“Which promptly sank.”