Tisdale Remembrance Day Service 2012 Tisdale - Saturday, November 17, 2012
By 10:15 AM Sunday, November 11, 2012 the RECPlex auditorium was already filled with people from Tisdale and surrounding area who had come to honour the veterans and the casualties of Canada’s wars. Several rows of seats were reserved at the front of the auditorium for surviving veterans, members of the Royal Canadian Legion, Royal Canadian Air Cadets and members of the colour party. However, each year fewer and fewer veterans are able to attend the service and the empty seats are a witness to the many who service from this community. As a prelude to the service the Tisdale Community Lions Band played. An honour guard from HMCS Unicorn took their position before the assembled audience, then at 10:30, lead by drummer Sam McAdam, the colour party with three R.C.M.P. members from the Tisdale detachment marched in followed by the veterans, Legion member and Cadets.
The order of service can be seen by clicking here or on the button on the menu, above left.
The national anthem filled the auditorium as the band gave it the zest and dignity that it deserves. It seems odd not to sing the song but the band’s rendition more than made up for audience participation.
After greeting everyone Pastor Dave MacPherson gave a short prayer which was followed by the reading of the those who did not return from the First and Second World Wars. The reading of the list was accompanied by a slide show offering the pictures of those for which pictures are available. It was a very long list, so hard to believe that so many lost their lives in the first war when Canada’s population was so small. The list for the second war was even longer and the tragic lose of life took place on land, on the sea and in the air. A video of the complete list is available by clicking on the menu button or on the video its self further down the page.
The Last Post and the Revelle are included in the video at the bottom of the page but the silent time of remembrance is not shown in the video.
I wish, as I wrote this report, that I had a complete printed list of the names read in the honour role. Space and time did not permit the inclusion of them all in the video at the bottom of the page as there is a limitation of fifteen minutes and I have only shown four below to represent the large number of fallen. Their failure to return from the wars changed their country so that not only did they die young the community from which they grew up was chronically damaged by the very fact they did not have a chance to live out their lives as productive members of the society. An important part of the ceremony was the laying of wreaths. A simple act of remembrance but a very moving part of this event as organizations, families, individuals and officials placed a wreath to commemorate this passing of November 11 in this, yet another year.
Scripture was read, a message by Fr. Gethin Edward, a prayer said and an offering collected, the proceeds going to the Legion’s poppy fund.
The band played the Royal Anthem and the Tisdale strings played the Warriors Lament. Though we are all getting older, the commemoration of Remembrance Day is not fading away in Canada and here in Tisdale and across the country people of all ages know the importance of this day and mark it by attending and participating in services like this one.
During the course of the service two rather obscure hymns were sung. I suspect that new traditions need to be created and the hymns that have been a part of Remembrance Day services for most of my life are being edged out. Though I was busy recording and capturing the service with stills and video, those old tunes filled my head. Being hard of hearing adds to that sort of thing, when you can’t make out quite what is going on, the memory and imagination take over. The message, scripture and prayers, are abbreviated on the video, because not only could my poor hearing not make out what was being said, but the camera did not get the oral portions either. The Remembrance Day service was very close to a full hour long. With battery and memory card limitations the video footage was fifty-six minutes and has been shorted to just under fifteen minutes in the video at the bottom of the page.
When the soldiers enlisted and went of to serve in World War I we did not have radio broadcast in Canada. When those that participated in World War II there no one imagined that the future would have colour television and computers let alone the complex network we know of as the internet. Although in both wars text messages were sent using telegraph but a telephone in your pocket was unimaginable. Technology is not the only thing that has changed our way of life. Clean water, indoor plumbing and wonder drugs have added perhaps as much as 30% to our life expectancy.
