Good Morning!
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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum, so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
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They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
– The Fallen, by Laurence Binyon
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The call of the horn is an ancient tradition, especially for honoring the dead.
The Shofar, made from the horn of a ritually killed sheep or goat, dates back to the earliest days of Judaism, and is still sounded in the same way as it was in King David’s time during the High Holy Days that mark the beginning of the Jewish Year. Long wooden trumpets are blown at Rumanian funerals. Trumpets hand-carved in phallic shapes are used in funerals in the Congo. In Great Britain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, black-clad musicians played trumpets and drums muffled by black cloth for funerals of those holding high rank.
And in many Western nations, at military funerals, a bugle sounds the last call.
In America, it is Taps.
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In England and throughout the Commonwealth, it is the Last Post.
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In France, they sound Aux Morts.
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In Italy, the call for lights out is Silenzio d’Ordinanza (The Silence of the Ordinance), which is also used at military funeral services.
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In Germany, it it not a trumpet call, but the song einen Kameraden (The Good Comrade) which is played.
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On this Memorial Day, it is good to remember all those who died serving their countries. It is also good to turn our thoughts toward a day when such sacrifices will no longer be asked of our sons and daughters.
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Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 
On this day, I remember, among many, my maternal Grandfather – Regimental Sergeant Major John Frost, Durham Light Infantry, died of wounds (after being gassed) in 1919, after having fought from 1914 onwards. Also my Uncle, Herbert Frost (known to all as ‘Bill’), late of His Majesty’s Grenadier Guards, who saw service in WWII; and too many from the Royal Air Force to mention. I also lost a good friend, and Patron of The People’s Mosquito, last year. Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, KCVSA, MiD, 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-45, Hon FRAeS, PhD, RN. Yes, THAT ‘Winkle’ Brown. Look him up – he was a pilot (although that’s rather like saying Yehudi Menuhin could play a little bit). Somewhere, ‘The Flowers of the Forest’ is playing.
Thank you for posting shortfinals – so many good people have died, they should all be remembered
Yes. The Flowers of the Forest is playing.
In Flanders Fields. The poem was written by Lt. Col. John McRae, MD. A physician who was there.
Thanks Chuck