An interesting aspect of how small communities remember their war veterans is revealed by Shawville’s war memorial in our Memorial Park. I had been accustomed to such monuments listing a community’s war dead; this one has inscribed the names of everyone who served — the war dead are marked with an asterisk. Few enough, I suppose, that everyone who served could be thus commemorated.

(Note that the monument is relatively new — 1997 — which is interesting in terms of my thinking about the recent development of what I refer shorthandedly as the Cult of the Veteran.)

(Also note the wreath at the monument’s base, and the poppy taped to one name. This photo was taken on the 4th; weather conditions would not have allowed either to stay for very long, so this had been done recently, and is not a holdover from November 11.)