Poppies

In Leavenworth, Kansas the poppies grow. Enduring symbols of sacrifice are created one by one
By DAWN BORMANN
Photo by KEITH MYERS

One by one, Carroll Garvin, 90, hand-ties crepe paper poppies to help American Legion fund-raising activities. Garvin, a veteran of World War II, creates about 600 poppies a day.
Inside a deserted veterans pool hall in Leavenworth, 90-year-old fingers craft a small piece of American symbolism.
One petal at a time, Carroll Garvin fashions tens of thousands of deep red poppies each year for parades and ceremonies marking Veterans Day and Memorial Day.
Garvin, a veteran of World War II, patiently turns out 600 poppies a day, for which he receives a nickel apiece.
“Seems like I’m satisfied,” he said this week.
The American Legion Auxiliary distributes the delicate flowers each year to raise money for its veterans programs.
American Legion literature says the poppy first became associated with the war dead after World War I. Veterans returned home and shared stories of wild poppies that grew on bloody battlefields. The flower forever became sealed in history when Canadian John McCrae penned the famous poem “In Flanders Fields.”

In Flanders Fields
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.

© 2005 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.