What are those little red Flowers!

[Angree]

I was enjoying a rare coffee in Starbucks this morning and I heard a shocking conversation on the next table.

There were two girls about 19/20 and one said to the other "What are those little red flowers that everyone is wearing...is it a fashion thing?" The other one said "I think its something to do with Cancer".

I mean really W.T.F, how do you get to that age and not know about poppies?

They don't watch telly you know...they're all about watching stuff online. They sure as hell aren't looking at the news online are they? So maybe the organisers need to do some sort of viral ad campaign to hoik the kids into their radar.

Can I be the first to say 'that's the way kids are nowadays'!?

They must surely have come across Poppies and Remembrance at school? or do some schools not have anything to do with it? - Maybe they just never listened

That is shocking! We went one year to the Cenotaph to see the march past and wreath laying. It was filled with tourists taking photos and videos. When they did the Last Post it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was very moving.

In Belgium, 11th Nov, Armistice Day is a public holiday.

Pretty sure they'd be the exception

It is quite shocking that they have got to the age they have without learning about them at some point.:(

Unfortunately, I have also heard it- from slightly younger teenagers who were unfortunatley somewhat like Vicky Pollard- completely self absorbed and indecipherable for the most part.

:( Yikes!

Perhaps they are recent arrivals to UK.

The Poppy campaign is really only in Britain, and it can be very hard for expats to find them (though British Forces overseas and British diplomatic and other representational) missions will have them.

crikey! That's worse than the time I was behind a 19/20 yr old woman at the checkouts who bought a Marie Curie pin-badge because she "likes Mariah Carey's songs"

Why is that so bad?

They were just ignorant, not rude.

Littleredpumpkin

The shocked faces were not aimed at te ids in particular..just at a society that allows kids this age to forget or not know about something so recent and so devestating.

Ignorance is on a par with rudeness imo. It should never be used as an excuse.

No, they weren't newly to the uK.

Well, unless they had really assimiliated the orange skin, hoop earrings and chavtacular accents.

PinkieMinx if you really think it is ok that it's 'just the way kids are nowadays' then I am a bit lost for words! Everyone in the UK should know what poppies stand for and if my kids don't know what 'those little red flowers' are for by their teens I will be ashamed and embarrassed. My ds is nearly 3 and I tell him in simple terms that poppies are important because we wear them to remember brave men. Those two girls sound like vacant air-heads and there is no way I am going to let my ds or dd be so stupid!

LittleRedPumpkin It's less about them being rude, more sadness that they have no idea the huge significance the poppies have.

My dd (6) knows what poppies are about and we haven't lived in the UK since she was 2. They sell them in the British Supermarket here.

This takes me back to my first year of univ in the UK (from the US). I saw everyone wearing these pretty little red flowers and I had no idea what they were for, and in between classes and new friends, I didn't ask. I gathered all the extras I found and put them in a little bowl on my nightstand.

Only later did I learn what they were for....I felt like a right twerp.

To add - I have noticed that a fair amount of 'girls' nowadays are so self-obsessed and self-absorbed that all they think about is how they look and why can't teenagers speak properly anymore?! I am not talking about grammar as much as the 'uh, 'uh, oh, yeah, uh' kind of speak I hear and the limited vocabulary! Maybe that's another post altogether...

But there are so many conflicts that people have no idea about. I was taught about WWI in history and grew up seeing old men who had fought in that war, and who had actually seen the red poppies grow on soldiers' mass graves. So of course I feel very solemn about it. But these girls are younger and probably for them, the wars they are most familiar with are those in Iraq/Afghanistan, which are much less graphically associated with red poppies.

I can't imagine they meant to be disrespectful, but it is very understandable that the hard-hitting impact of the poppies has lessened. That is only right.

this year has the backing so hopefully will bring it to the forefront of the "youth of today"

"But there are so many conflicts that people have no idea about."

If they honestly don't know about WWII then that is worrying.

Killoki, I don't think they shouldn't know about WWI (WWII is not where the red poppies come from). But men fought and died in the hope that the world would not change hugely. We should respect that.

They probably just didn't listen in school, I'm in my early twenties and we all wore them at school, did the two mins silence, had special assemblies to commemorate the event etc. Those girls are probably only about 3-4 years younger than myself and I don't think that much can have changed in schools since I left! :O

A year ago I heard a 14-15 year old girl ask her friend what Lent was and she shrugged and said 'dunno, i'm giving up cheese though anyway 'cause I'm like addicted, I eat it almost every day'

Some people choose not to learn! I'm sure they're very much in the minority and that most British people will be fully aware what the Poppy appeal stands for. Hopefully!