Remembrance Day

Hi. I'm Charles the Bear Cub. You know me. I live on Sparkle Road with my buddy,  Grandpa James. He's really old. He was the second Canadian to get off Noah's Ark, you know.


Oh. Wait! Chance lives with us, too. He's a newborn cubby someone left in a basket on our doorstep. He's a wee little thing. I look after Chance, too. He's a handful! 

Chance doesn't have a tail, yet. He doesn't have any teeth. He doesn't eat Smarties or porridge. He's a wee little thing. He just drinks chocolate owls' milk out of his bottle.

Know what? Today is Remembrance Day. I know what that means. At eleven o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month we stand very still for two minutes and we remember. Know what we remember? We remember all the men and women who went to war to protect us.










Lots of our soldiers went to war but they never came home. James says they gave their lives for King and Empire. Some of them gave their lives for Queen and country. That means they died. Those soldiers are all buried in Flanders Fields. That's a cemetery.

Lots of people will be at the Cenotaph to watch the wreath be laid in honour of our soldiers. The Cenotaph has the names of  all the people from Windsor who died to protect us. Almost every town has a Cenotaph. That's good, 'cuz we won't forget that war is bad. Grandpa James says that 28 million people were killed in The Great War. That's a lot!

Most Canadian soldiers are peacekeepers. They keep people from fighting with each other. Some of them fight in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is pretty far away. We can't get there on VIA Rail. Grandpa James says we need camels to go there.

I could be a soldier you know. I know what soldiers do. The soldiers' job is to stand on guard for thee. They are in charge of protecting O Canada, our home and native land so we can play outside and not get blown up or killed by Mr. Talliban and his friends. Miss Jackie taught us something at the Scruffy Maple Day Care Centre. It goes like this-


“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I think wrong, and free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.”

 Canada is a pretty nice place, you know. Canadians are lucky. Canadians get to eat Smarties and drink root beer. We get to play hockey and build snow forts and hunt for lions, too. We can say thank you to the brave soldiers and sailors and airmen.

Oh. Wait! Did you hear that? Grandpa James is hollering, "Where are my handsome bear cubs? Where are my Sons of Windsor? Where are my Princes of Ontario? That's me! Charles! That's Chance! We're handsome bear cubs. We're Sons of Windsor and Princes of Ontario! We gotta go find Grandpa James so we can get our ears tickled and our noses kissed. 

This is me, Charles the Bear Cub saying, "Be good citizens. Say 'thank you' and salute our soldiers. Be glad you live in Canada. Then you can eat Smarties and drink root beer. Oh! Wait! Come over to our house and play with us! We can be thankful together.  Okay! Over and out!"