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| Poppy from pintrest.com |
As we roll into the fall season the leaves are dropping and the winds are changing. A yearly remembrance is upon us forever symbolized with the red poppy.
We are moving further and further in time from the first and second world wars and inevitably we will have a diminished tangible grasp on the people who served their country during these two wars. As a child I used to recite the same tired joke my mom used (likely in her childhood as well) about my great grandfather having served in both the first and second wars...
"My great grandfather served...served food!! He was a cook." While this got more eye rolls than laughs it doesn't seem to be something I am able to forgot. There is another family joke about my great grandfather having signed up for service after two days of marriage...
While g-grandfather Coombs was ruled out of overseas service due to a "split toe" he served at Niagara Falls feeding the troops before they were shipped out for service as he was a baker by trade. During the second world war he served as a cook to the R.C.A.F in Toronto (likely at Downsview not far from his home).
Until I began doing my family history I had never realized that there were several others in our tree that had served, particularly in the first war but some in the second. Some of these men came home, some did not.
Have you checked you family tree for some tangible roots to the past?
