Musings of An Old English Teacher: Veterans Day

Why isn’t there an apostrophe in Veterans Day? There’s one in Mother’s Day. (And why is that apostrophe before the “s”? There’s more than one mother.) Well, here’s the answer! The United States Department of Veterans Affairs website states that the possessive case (the one with the apostrophe) is not used because Veterans Day "is not a day that 'belongs' to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans."

I also wondered about other related days and their occasions, like Armistice Day, Memorial Day, Decoration Day, and Remembrance Day. Are you up to a quiz? How much do you know about these special days?

VETERANS DAY

1.	What is the purpose of Veterans Day?
2.	How is Memorial Day different from Veterans Day?
3.	When is Memorial Day?
4.	What was the original name of Memorial Day?
5.	Why is Veterans Day always on November 11?
6.	What is unusual about the time and date of the day?
7.	What is the name of the final treaty?
8.	What was the original name of Veterans Day?
9.	What President proposed the celebration of Armistice Day?
10.	Who was President when the name was officially changed to Veterans Day?
11.	Why was the name of Armistice Day changed to Veterans Day?
12.	What is Remembrance Day?
VETERANS DAY ORIGINATED AFTER WORLD WAR I. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT WORLD WAR I?
13.	What are the years of WWI?
14.	When did the US enter WWI?
15.	Why did the US enter WWI?
16.	At the time, WWI was called something else. What was it?
17.	Which country lost the most people in WWI?
18.	What started WWI?
19.	What are the names we gave to the two sides in WWI?
20.	What countries were on “our“ side?
21.	What countries did we fight?
22.	What are the best-known battles of WWI? (my guesses – The references give different lists.)
23.	What are the best-known figures of WWI? (my guesses – The references give different lists.)
ANSWERS
1.	What is the purpose of Veterans Day?
	Veterans Day honors those who served in the US Armed Forces, both living and dead.
2.	How is Memorial Day different from Veterans Day?
	Memorial Day honors those who died while serving in the US Armed Forces.
3.	When is Memorial Day?
	Memorial Day is observed annually on the last Monday of May.
4.	What was the original name of Memorial Day?
	Memorial Day was first called Decoration Day. It was an occasion to decorate the graves of the war dead after the Civil War.
5.	Why is Veterans Day always on November 11?
	Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the armistice with Germany went into effect.
6.	What is unusual about the time and date of the day?
	The first treaty, signed in 1918, was temporary; the formal peace agreement came later.
7.	What is the name of the final treaty?
	The final treaty for World War I was the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919. However, it was signed by the Big Four, not by the US. An associate ally, not one of the Big Four, the US objected to the inclusion of the League of Nations in that treaty and did not sign an agreement with Germany until August 25, 1921, with the Treaty of Berlin.
8.	What was the original name of Veterans Day?
	Armistice Day
9.	What President proposed the celebration of Armistice Day?
	Woodrow Wilson, in 1919
10.	Who was President when the name was officially changed to Veterans Day?
	Dwight Eisenhower, in 1954
11.	Why was the name of Armistice Day changed to Veterans Day?
	To honor ALL who died in military service, not just in World War I (an idea of Raymond Weeks of Birmingham, Alabama, in 1945)
12.	What is Remembrance Day?
	British Commonwealth’s version of Armistice Day
13.	What are the years of WWI?
	1914-1918
14.	When did the US enter WWI?
	1917
15,	Why did the US enter WWI?
	The immediate cause was Germany's sinking of neutral shipping in a designated war-zone. Five American merchant ships went down in March, 1917; Germany destroyed the passenger ship Lusitania in 1915, with 128 Americans on board.
16.	At the time, we called WWI something else. What was it?
	The Great War (The War to End All Wars) - 59 million troops were mobilized, over 8 million died, and over 29 million were injured in a struggle which sharply altered the political, economic, social, and cultural nature of Europe. (Different references give different numbers.)
17.	Which country lost the most people in WWI?
	Those who lost over a million:    Germany 1,773,700    Russia 1,700,000    France 1,357,800    Austria-Hungary 1,200,000 ---- US 116,516 (mobilized over 4,700,000)
18	What started WWI?
	On June 28, 1914, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. The assassination set into action a complex network of interlocking alliances throughout Europe.
19.	What are the names we gave to the two sides in WWI?
	Allies (or Allied Powers) and Central Powers
20.	What countries were on “our“ side?
	Britain, France, Russia, and Italy were the Big Four. The United States was an “associate” ally.
21.	What countries did we fight?
	Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, Romania, Japan, and several others
22.	What are the best-known battles of WWI? (my guesses – The references give different lists.)
	Marne, Verdun, Ypres, Gallipoli, Somme, Amiens
23.	What are the best-known figures of WWI? (my guesses – The references give different lists.)
	Kaiser William II - Germany Czar Nicholas II - Russia Vladimir Lenin, Revolution Leader - Russia Prime Minister George Clemenceau - France President  Woodrow Wilson - USA Prime Minister David Lloyd George - Great Britain Marshal Ferdinand Foch, France Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, Germany General John J. Pershing - USA Marshal Philippe Petain – France Lord of Admiralty Winston Churchill – Great Britain Baron Manfred Von Richthofen, Flying Ace – Germany Mata Hari, Spy – Central Powers

When I Picked Cotton – About 70 Years Ago

The ole cotton fields back home . . . well, almost. Just down the road from my house, anyway, in this picture. But I did pick cotton. Once. Not quite ten years old and a city girl, I was envious that my cousins slung interesting cotton bags across their chests every morning and headed out to the fields to make some money. This was in the cotton-pickin' days in Oneonta, Alabama, in the late forties, when schools were on cotton-pickin' time--closed so most kids could contribute to their families' major source of income. My four cousins were considered responsible enough to work in the fields, but my uncle said I was too citified. What he meant, I thought, was that I just couldn't handle the job. One day, I wanted to go with them. I begged and pleaded and even pouted a little for the privilege of spending the day in such an adventure. Finally, he relented and handed me the bag, a long off-white sack with a wide strap. He also found some overalls and a long-sleeved shirt that almost fit and put a large straw hat on my head. (Where was my cellphone!) I'm now pretty sure that my beloved cousins were snickering behind my back at their visitor’s naivete, but I was too excited to notice. The boys hitched Ole Joe to the wagon and we climbed in for the brief journey to the field, with large woven baskets, water bucket, tin water dipper, and sandwiches. After a brief tutoring session, I eagerly set out to prove that I was worthy.

I quickly learned that a soft white cotton ball grew from a vicious cotton burr with sharp spurs that deliberately pricked fingers, with special awards for blood. I also learned about sawbriars and cockleburs. Sawbriars are cruel vines that grow in cotton fields and sprout tiny sharp teeth and intend to saw your arms off, even through a long-sleeved shirt, and cockleburs are sadistic plants that produce evil creatures that collect on your clothing in an attempt to scratch their way into any exposed skin. I soon began to feel their sharp spikes under my shirt. I also learned that a straw hat doesn't protect your skin from the boiling water dripping down your chest and that the field uniform does not in any way protect you from the savage heat or the fiendish insects that discover your neck. The gnats’ hotels in my eyes made me half-blind, and of course I rubbed two pounds of dirt on my wet face. I was a sweating mess. After dipping more than my share from the bucket, I soon needed to pee. Or was that just shorthand for a short walk over to the trees to stand panting in the shade? My cotton sack, intentionally long enough to be dragged across the dirt, was woefully thin, almost weightless, but it pulled me off balance. And my callous country cousins were singing! I'm sure now that they were laughing at me.

And my uncle thought I couldn't do it. Hmm. Well, he was right. But they had to pick cotton. And I didn't. I slowly walked the long distance back to the house, somewhat dejected, but looking forward to a long, comforting soak in the tub. 

The Snipe Hunt

Backstory of the Idiom

A snipe is a slender-billed bird of the sandpiper family. Its coloring makes it well-camouflaged in marshy areas. A snipe is so difficult to catch or shoot that sniper refers to someone skilled enough to shoot one.

In a snipe hunt, experienced people make fun of gullible newcomers by giving them an impossible task. A snipe hunt usually takes place within a specific work environment or social group; the task is part of a tradition, similar to hazing.

The phrase snipe hunt originates from a practical joke within a camping context. Inexperienced campers are encouraged (rewards or threats) to catch a snipe, which moves around in the dark from tree to tree. A snipe can be a bird or an animal, depending on who explains the rules. The dupes are given sacks and told the ways to attract a snipe, such as banging rocks together or whistling a specific way, while the other hunters push the snipe toward them. Of course, after getting the greenhorns lost in the woods, the old-timers just go back to the campfire and wait to see how long it takes the newbies to give up and show up.

Meaning of snipe hunt: a futile search or endeavor

_________________________________________________________________________

I have personal ownership of this idiom. When I moved to a new Girl Scout troop in the sixth grade, the five greenhorns in the group were included in the invitation to a weekend camping trip at a farm in Gold Hill, just outside Auburn. With brand-new sleeping bags on our shoulders, we emerged from family cars feeling both adventurous and apprehensive. None of us had ever slept outside. Overnight. In the dark. But soon we were having fun cooking over a large campfire, with the help of our leader, her husband, and her son. We sang songs and told stories and learned about constellations and petted the two farm dogs.

Then the husband announced that we were going on a snipe hunt. The older girls cheered and talked about how much fun we were going to have. But this time, the new girls would have the most fun because we could catch a snipe, a harmless small animal that traveled in small packs from tree to tree, only in the dark. The son told us that snipes are attracted by a certain kind of noise, something like whistling. When a snipe hears the right sound, it stops to listen. Each of us was given a feed sack, and the older girls demonstrated how to whistle up a snipe. Our leader announced that the girl who caught the snipe would get a great prize, but we were encouraged to help each other. Because that’s what good Girl Scouts do. And the older girls generously said they would try to drive the snipes toward us.

Off we went, away from the fire and the cleared area, into the woods, led by the lanterns of the husband and the son and the barking of the dogs. Somehow, the lanterns disappeared, and we couldn’t hear the dogs. In the increasing darkness of the woods we suddenly noticed that only the five rookies were left. We giggled with semi-fear and tried to tell jokes to keep from freaking out. We walked for what was surely nine or ten hours, whistling. Not for a snipe. Bagging a snipe wasn’t on our minds. I don’t remember how we managed to get back to the campfire, but we were too tired to enjoy the laughter that greeted us. I had no problem sleeping on the ground that night. And I had learned what a snipe isn’t.

My Cousin Billy's Joke

If I close my eyes, I can almost   .    .    .

hear the sounds of Grandmama's switch red-striping Billy's legs. Ten-year-old me chortled, but restrained myself from peering around the corner of the back porch. Grandmama believed that punishment should be private. But I wanted to see him suffer. Lord knows I was suffering. I ran my tongue tentatively around my mouth, wincing as blister met blister. 

Jimmy, sitting listlessly on the porch steps, wiped his nose on his sleeve and sniffled; his mouth was blistered too. Sprawled on the black wicker swing, her head pillowed on her arm, Betty tried to cry herself to sleep.  Bobby noisily ate the cold biscuits and slurped the buttermilk that Grandmama said would ease the burning.

My cousins were totally absorbed with the pain in their own bodies--I was much more interested in Billy's pain, in Billy's punishment. Did the switching hurt? Bad? Would he have to do our chores? All of them? For how long? Smiling at the steady sounds of switch justice, I could hear Billy's bare feet dancing as he jumped up and down on the back porch in rhythmic thuds, trying to avoid the switch, yet not daring to move out of Grandmama's reach.

Maybe next time he'd think twice before he set me up--talking about how good those elephant ears tasted! Who would've thought that those pretty green leaves could raise such blisters! Maybe next visit I wouldn't be dumb enough to fall for another one of his practical jokes.
 

If I close my eyes, I can almost   .    .    .

hear the sounds of Mama's switch red-striping my legs and the rhythmic thudding of my feet dancing up and down on the kitchen floor. Why was that dumb little kid across the street stupid enough to believe me when I told him about those good-tasting elephant ears?