Dear LPG, 

Today is the day that, at 11 o’clock, we should all be pretty used to stopping what we are doing for two minutes but do we actually remember to remember anymore?   

I am writing in advance, but I have checked, and Remembrance Day will be a Friday this year.  What will you be doing?   During many years in the past, I have greeted November 11th with a plan to make time to observe the two minutes’ silence.  But armed with every good intention I find that something has distracted me at just the wrong time and then, before you realise it, eleven o’clock has come and gone.  

There have also been years when I have remembered and annoyed the people around me because they have forgotten the time and I have stopped.  I remember leaving a phone ringing until the caller gave up one year while working in an office during the days when no one expected to wait for 40 minutes to get an answer and, even though I did have the permission of my employer, there was a letter of complaint.  

Sometimes we remember and sometimes we forget to get the time right but as long as we remember why we are silent perhaps the time is just a little less important than the actual time.

I have penned a short poem that might help remember the time

Remembering the time…

What will you be doing this morning?
It’s November so it might be quite cold
For the young it will be school or work time
But it’s different when you are old

You don’t have to get up quite so early
You’ll be late getting breakfast underway
So, it might well be quite near eleven
Before you work out what to do with the day

Will eleven a.m. catch you shopping
Or perhaps something will cause a delay
If your still alone and haven’t left the house yet
There’ll be no one else to talk to anyway

Perhaps the telly will remind you 
Of the time and that it is Armistice Day
And you’ll remember just before it is eleven
To be quiet for two minutes…OK

OV, Lewisham