November 11, 2014 will certainly go down as a noteworthy day to remember.

In the United States – it was Veteran’s Day. In Canada – Remembrance Day. Both honor the memories of fallen comrades and those who currently serve.

On this bone-chilling Tuesday morning (-2 Celsius, 28-degrees Fahrenheit), Shaw Cablesystems had invited to me to be part of its broadcast team covering the Remembrance Day Program at Cenotaph Memorial Square in Kelowna’s City Park. I had recently signed up for Shaw’s Volunteer Program as a learning and networking opportunity. This was my first gig for the local affiliate.

It was a three-camera shoot. Director Chris Clark tasked me with being the sound mixer. Uh-oh, that’s new?! He gave me a hands-on board tutorial minutes before the ceremony started. We sat side-by-side for 90 minutes in the Shaw van. Lucky us. Never felt the cold or nasty wind.

My main responsibility was keeping the broadcast sound at a consistent level – somewhere between -10 and -20 on the colorful doohickey that looked like a thermometer. When the speakers spoke, I often had to nudge up the volume. When the bands played, volume down. Chris was my co-pilot and adjusted a few knobs every so often when I zoned-out at the switch.

At ceremony’s end – we stepped out of our mobile cocoon and faced the Arctic polar vortex. The crowd was massive and intrepid. Folks were bundled up like they were attending a New England Patriots game in Foxboro in mid-January. I helped tear down camera three and lug pieces of it back to the van. Soon after, Chris dismissed me and give a thumbs-up for my mixology work. The proof would be in the pudding when the show airs on Tuesday night and subsequent times later in the week.

Wife Elaine arrived right before the first speaker spoke and reveled in her homeland’s patriotic assembly. She toured the grounds and snapped gorgeous photos of the parade line and placing of the wreaths. I especially liked her marching shots of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Pipes (bagpipes) and Drums of the Kelowna Pipe Band Society. Those dudes were in kilts!

Serendipity struck as we were exiting the park. We caught the eye of Ron Cannan, Member of Parliament (MP) and elected representative for Kelowna-Lake Country. He greeted us warmly. As a House of Parliament insider, his counsel and knowledge would go a long way toward helping us with immigration and work-permit issues. We requested a Friday pow-wow – the ball was clearly in his court (Update – we GOT the Friday meeting, more on it in an upcoming post).

 

Remembrance Day was equally marked by a very familiar and historic emblem – red poppies. Just about everyone in attendance in City Park had a red poppy pinned to their lapel. History has indicated that after the First World War red poppies grew over the graves of fallen Canadian soldiers in Flanders Fields. The poppies became memorial symbols for soldiers who died in conflict.

“In Flanders Fields” is a war poem in the form of a rondeau (a fixed form of verse based on two rhyme sounds and consisting usually of 13 lines with three stanzas, with the opening words of the first line of the first stanza used as an independent refrain after the second and third stanzas), drafted during WWI by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of a friend and fellow soldier.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.