My grade two teacher had a local pianist come to my school regularly to teach our class a variety of traditional songs (“Snowbird” by Anne Murray was about as modern as it got!)
Most of those songs are ones I can still sing to this day and when you think of the impact that a teacher can have in a student's life, it's funny which seemingly inconsequential things stand out. (On a related note, she was the type of teacher who began each day with “Oh Canada” and ended it with “God Save The Queen” – I don't think that's allowed anymore.)
The war songs in today's clip were always a couple of my favourites during these lessons (and not just because we got to sing the line quoted in the title of this post – something else kids likely wouldn't be allowed to do today) which only grew in resonance as I grew older and learned more about the world wars.
Since this is a Remembrance Day-themed post, I'll add an especially sad note – that teacher, who would probably be cited as a favourite teacher by most of my classmates, who regularly bought her classes ice cream treats or doughnuts, who would get 300+ kids to her house at Halloween when a neighbour on the same street might get 50, suffered from depression and committed suicide later in her life after she'd retired from teaching. Absolutely tragic.
I know Remembrance Day is meant to remember the soliders who fought and died for us over the years. But I hope you spare a moment tomorrow to think not only of war but perhaps others, now gone, who have touched your life as well.
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