When Armistice Day Meant Something Special

[Dr. Bob]

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.

All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another.

I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So, we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Kurt Vonnegut

 

[Roy Kling]

The 11th. hour of the 11th. day of the 11th. month.

My dad was 12 years old and living in Harrisburg when the guns fell silent. He said he wanted to go out on the streets and celebrate. Grandma wouldn't hear of it, she had boys in uniform and the Spanish flu was rampant at the time. She made dad sit in the kitchen where she could keep an eye on him.

 

[Roy Kling]

Armistice Day, that's what dad called it long after it was renamed, Veteran's Day. It was a little confusing for us as kids, same day, different names for it. I wonder if today's young people even know about Armistice Day. It's kind of sad really.

 

[Van]

My Grandfather was "over there" when the Armistice was finally secured. He was a 30 year old father of five when he was drafted. One lesson he taught me was "take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you."

 

[kyredneck]

The 11th. hour of the 11th. day of the 11th. month.

My dad was 12 years old and living in Harrisburg when the guns fell silent. He said he wanted to go out on the streets and celebrate. Grandma wouldn't hear of it, she had boys in uniform and the Spanish flu was rampant at the time. She made dad sit in the kitchen where she could keep an eye on him.

My grandfather laid on the brink of death for 2 weeks in a trench, under a sheet of tin, with the Spanish flu, which is ultimately what brought the war to a close. And I'm old enough to remember it being called Armistice Day.

My Grandfather was "over there" when the Armistice was finally secured. He was a 30 year old father of five when he was drafted. One lesson he taught me was "take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you."

Have you ever seen footage of those flooded trenches?