Don Cherry: Remembrance Day memories

November 11, 2020

By Don Cherry

You know, there’s a little secret about wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day.

Years ago, a friend told it to me: All you do is stick a little bit of Scotch tape around the end of the pin. That way it won’t fall out of your lapel.

I can remember walking around my hometown of Kingston as a youngster – you know it’s Canada’s first capital, right? – and the poppies would bloom on everyone’s coat or jacket.

Being in the United States for a while – 1954 until 1980 – I didn’t wear one. That tradition is not celebrated south of the border.

That’s probably how those people at Whole Foods got in trouble. (Initially the U.S.-based chain ruled last week that poppies weren’t allowed under its employee uniform policy, then lifted the ban later in the day after protests that went right up to the prime minister). Guess the bosses just didn’t know how revered Nov. 11 is here in Canada.

As a hockey player and then a coach for so much of my life, I was seldom in Canada on Nov. 11. But when I came back from coaching the Colorado Rockies after the 1980 season, I decided to wear one every year, usually starting about the week before.

I’ve always had a strong respect and admiration for our soldiers, the people who fought to keep out country free.

Do you remember that TV show Who Do You Think You Are? It was a documentary series looking at a prominent Canadian and tracing that person’s family tree.

Around 2007, the show flew us to France where I visited the grave of my uncle Thomas William MacKenzie near Boulogne-Sur-Mer. About nine headstones into the row, we found him. I kept looking at the date he was killed – Nov. 7, 1918. Just four days before the end of the First World War, the day we now all remember.

No one had visited his grave in 100 years. My uncle had served in the army’s Canadian Field Artillery and was buried in the Terlincthun British Cemetery. His mother and father, Matilda and Thomas MacKenzie, were from Kingston, too.

I remember looking around at row after row after row of all those young Canadians who fought for Canada. I kept looking at the ages: 22, 25, 23 ... on and on. I think my uncle was 26.

Just last week I sent his cufflinks, his watch and military bar and medal to the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum, our national museum, in Shilo, Man. I phoned the number and had a great conversation with a man named Andrew. I’d had them for a long time – but let’s face it, I have a lot more days behind me than ahead of me.

After visiting my uncle’s grave, we went to Vimy Ridge. The Battle of Vimy was in April of 1917. I’ve read where historians called it Canada’s most celebrated military victory. My grandfather on my mother’s side, Richard Palamountain, served there. My family were all immigrants from Ireland.

At Vimy there are white headstones – you’ve probably seen the pictures. Again, row after row. Seeing stuff like that really shook me up. It was on that trip I truly realized how much these young men had given. After that, any chance I had, I tried to emphasize the importance of these men and women who served our country so bravely.

I think of all those people in the cemeteries, those who fought for us and our freedom. They were not conscripted, they volunteered. Both my grandfather and uncle volunteered.

In 2008, the Chief of the Defence Staff, on behalf of the Canadian Armed Forces, gave me the Canadian Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service, for “unwavering support to men and women of the Canadian Forces.” When I think about it, to me it is more important than winning the Jack Adams Trophy (NHL Coach of the Year).

I keep that medallion in a very special spot, right next to an award the Mounties gave me.

All I tried to do on Coach’s Corner was to point out to Canadians that we should honour our fallen who gave the supreme sacrifice.

Yesterday, I had a chap who came over for a visit, with his wife and three kids.

They were all wearing poppies.

Don Cherry is a hockey commentator currently doing a successful podcast — Don Cherry’s Podcast — with his son Tim. You can listen to the podcasts here.