The Poppy Story
The Poppy Story, by Laura B. Mercer, Girls State 1982
For more than 70 years, red poppies have been worn proudly by Americans to commemorate Memorial Day. I would like to tell you the significance of this flower. From 1914 to 1918, the Battlefields of Europe were trampled by the boots of millions of fighting men. From 1917 to 1918, American troops were part of the Allied Forces, which fought to bring peace to Europe. In Flanders, the only touch of life and beauty they often saw was the wild poppies that bloomed amid the rubble of war. Along the trenches, around the shell craters, and among the barbed wire and wreckage, the little poppies grew and bloomed. The tiny blossoms also covered the graves of American fighting men who had fallen on the battlefield; they soon became a symbol of sacrifice to the living and dead. Mrs. Mercer’s, two brothers