Veterans Day (11/11/11) was originally called "Armistice Day."

After WW II, "Armistice Day" was renamed Veterans Day (nationwide) to honor veterans of ALL the nation's conflicts, not just WWI. It honors ALL veterans, not only those who lost their lives in the service of their country.

Unlike some communities, Wallingford has chosen to stick with tradition. To be sure, we call it "Veterans Day". But here, Veterans Day does not move from one calendar date to another just to make possible another three-day holiday weekend. Case in point: last year's official town observance fell on Saturday, November 11th. 11:00 a.m., on the 11th day of the 11th month, the precise date/time when the armistice ending WWI took effect. That's called tradition. Inconvenient? Perhaps. But just one way we honor the past.....

By way of contrast, Memorial Day, a "floating" holiday observed on the last Monday in May (got to have a three-day weekend to start the summer season...) is dedicated to servicemen/women who LOST THEIR LIVES in the service of our country. That's a reality that gives new meaning to the word "inconvenient"...

Memorial Day traces its origins to 1868 - the period just after the Civil War, and was originally dedicated to the fallen of that conflict. It was originally known as "Decoration Day", because citizens would decorate the graves of the fallen with fresh-cut spring flowers.....We now honor the fallen of ALL our nation's conflicts.

In a sense, Veterans Day is somewhat more "upbeat", celebrating veterans, while Memorial Day is more somber, specifically dedicated to, and honoring the fallen. As an aside, one of the things that haunts many veterans is why they survived, but the guy next to them did not. No veteran I know has ever been able to really come to terms with that........

On the subject of "re-naming": prior to the outbreak of WW II, WWI was called "The Great War", NOT "WWI." Historians and poli-sci majors see the two conflicts as two halves of the same global conflict...just separated by a twenty-year intermission (a "half-time" if you will....)

During the height of World War II (1943-1945), male high school seniors (age 18) were drafted right out of their schools, BEFORE graduating. No senior class picnic, no senior prom, no graduation exercise. That's why, in recent decades, towns went to great trouble to identify veterans who had never received their diploma, and granted them a diploma....

Perhaps one unintended consequence of all this is that WWI gets lost in the shuffle. One hears talk of "Veterans Day"; and less mention of the armistice ending WWI. And that includes all the publicity surrounding "Veterans Day sales"....NOT "Armistice Day Sales..."

No worries. In the course of our speeches, we try to do justice to yesteryear.