Today my DH, DS (2) and myself were shopping in the Trinity Centre in Leeds. It's a large new shopping centre with a small events space on the bottom level.
There are shops all around this small events space, one of which is the Apple shop which we were popping into this morning.
There was an event on in support of the Poppy Appeal. It was attended by dignitaries, current and former service men and women and some other people. There was a lovely band and a choir etc.
All the time this was going on there were shoppers milling around and chatting, the area was in no way roped off. I took DS to listen to the music for a bit, while my DH was inside waiting to be served. DS got a bit loud so I went back inside.
When we were done we popped out of the shop again and started to walk past the event area.
I suddenly realised that they were having some sort of 2 minute silence. One of the attendees/organiser types gave us a real mucky look as we were walking past, and a similar dirty look at other people.
There was a PA system so they may well have announced the 2 minute silence, but that was not audible in the shop and the Apple staff carried on as normal. Everyone one else was walking about the centre talking while it was going on.
I felt awful about it. I think it is really important to show respect to Veterans and I always observe the usual 2 minute silences that we get each year. I felt like a right cow just walking past, but we'd got half way past before I'd even clocked what was going on and it was too late by then. My husband was a few paces in front and I would have had to shout for him to get him to stop (there was so much noise from other people despite the 'silence'.) Plus I would never have taken DS out if I'd known as there is no way he'd managed being quiet for 2 minutes.
It's really been niggling at me and I'm thinking of sending the Trinity Centre a letter suggesting that they manage things a little differently in future, but I won't if people think I'm over reacting.