Casey Column
By Bill Casey
I moved the sprig of rosemary for my coat lapel to my shirt pocket.
It was quite warm at the races that Thursday and while the coats off rule is out oftime at Randwick I cheated on the grounds it was Anzac Day.
"I'm glad you are wearing your rosemary on Anzac Day," my daughter said. "It meansyou know the real reason we're having the holiday."
I knew what she meant and was delighted her generation was even interested in old soldiers,nurses and sailors. It makes a difference to people who grew up during wartime to knowthat younger people realise what it was all about.
I'm not forgetting Vietnam or Peace Keeping forces and things like that. But my warwas World War II.
I was of "don't mention the war" age. We were the ones who didn't have chocolate andused to roll silver paper into balls and send it away to some mysterious destination.
Where did all that silver paper go? What did they do with it, anyway?
But that's another thing. The Anzac authorities should concentrate on the younger people.
If there is to be a future for Anzac Day, and that in itself sometime appears a contradictionin terms, as Anzac Day is a lot about dying for your country as much as serving it, thatfuture must lie with people who have never been been to war, and hopefully never willbe.
I am getting on now and the last time I was personally involved in a war was in the1950s when hostilities broke out in Korea. That seems so long ago now and I doubt whetherthe younger generation even recall there was a Korean War.
But they seem to know what Anzac Day is about, or at least they have a rough idea becausethe TV and newspapers still make a fuss about it.
Very shortly we will have no World War I service men left and if it comes to that theWWII boys will be thin on the ground.
So Anzac Day March and Anzac Day thoughts will be filled with non contributing people.
I was at a state primary school during WWII and find it hard to believe that war ended55 years ago.
You only have to add primary school age to the 57 years which have passed since theWorld War II ended in 1945 to realise how old people who actually served in the Australianforces must be right now.
I remember we had air raid drill at school because the Japanese were coming. We hadto kneel down on an air raid mat, backside in the air and head on a cushion for air raiddrill.
I don't know what protection this would have been for even a reasonably sized bombbut it certainly helped me get an accurate and distinctive view of Mary Margaret McPherson'soutstanding shape.
I was just old enough to be curious of such things.
There was always a rush to fill the spot behind Mary Margaret at air raid drill andyou only had to see the girl later on to realise why. She maintained an excellent physiqueand the boys at the school were well aware of it.
Some athletic lads even risked official educational censure by hanging upside down,monkey fashion, on the school steps which led from the ground floor to Mary Margaret'sclassroom upstairs.
It was a great social triumph to be able to announce to enthralled 10, 11 and 12 yearolds that Mary Margaret was wearing black drawers today.
Because of the war, school uniform was not compulsory. Our parents could ill affordit anyway. But the school was glad to have us. Mum and Dad could have sent us along inour pyjamas if necessary.
I was invariably short of clothes for school, or anything else for that matter.
Unfortunately I was the eldest of four boys so there were no hand-me-downs as therewere for my youngest brother.
Perhaps that should be younger brothers because each of them eventually did time inmy old grey pants.
That sounds rough but as we grew out of short pants into long 'uns the grey flannelno leggers automatically became the property of the next in line brother.
Everyone had big families in those days and it is a wonder that the third or fourthboy in line did not suffer an inferiority complex.
But parents made a point of buying each one something new, so they did not get thefeeling of being inferior.
The same applies to Anzac Day. We must eventually think of something new and we hopeagainst hope it will not be another war.
Those who contributed have made a practice of not saying much about what happened tothem on the grounds that the youngsters "don't want to hear all that stuff".
Almost as if they were inferior. Fortunately it comes out as superiority complex ina way as really the men and women are entitled to feel proud of what they achieved.
But the inferior part comes in by having to justify the mateship etc. to the younger generation.
There is that nagging worry that the younger people will not understand.
The Anzac people often it is best to work under the least said, soonest mended syndrome.
They need not worry. The younger people do know what it was all about, and most areprepared to let the men and women of the war years have their place and day in the sun.
"I'm pleased you're wearing your sprig of rosemary," my daughter said at the races.
"It shows you have respect for the meaning of the day."
So be it.
ENDS
KEYWORD: CASEY ON THURSDAY COLUMN
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