Anzac Day in Australia for me and lots of other Aussies and Kiwis is a sacred day.
Anzac Day 2020 was different of course. Thanks to a worldwide pandemic that we have all come to know as Covid-19 and the new concept of social distancing.
I suppose I am just thinking out loud
I suppose in this article I am just thinking out loud. Sharing my own experience of what for me has always been a very special day. My earliest memories of Anzac Day are of my brother and I riding our dragster pushbikes in the wee hours of the morning. We would arrive at the memorial statue at the Blackwood roundabout dressed in our Scout uniforms where we would join in the dawn service proceedings.
These early Anzac Day memories have always stayed with me, as has the tradition of attending the dawn service. Up until this year, I don’t remember missing many dawn services. Maybe one or two when I was working on a mine or drilling site somewhere in the Australian outback. Even then I would still listen on the radio when I could.
It doesn’t matter where you are in Australia, you’ll find a Dawn Service
It doesn’t matter where you are in Australia the nearest town, no matter how small or remote, they will be near guaranteed to be hosting a dawn service. For example, last year I was in the tiny Western Australian town of Jerramungup. Not only did they have a dawn service, there were mounted horseman in full light horse uniforms. A very nice touch and a haunting sight as the sun rose behind them.
However Anzac Day 2020 was obviously different for myself and many others. I would personally like to thank whoever it was that came up with the idea of standing at the end of your driveway.
I, like thousands of other Australians, did exactly that.
“With my candle in a cut out plastic milk container illuminating the red poppy hand drawn by Miss Linda, a little Australian flag and transistor radio, I was able to honour the memory of our diggers.”
Looking to the East with that distinctive pre-dawn glow over the ranges I listened to the dawn service on the radio. It is always a moving experience when you hear the Last Post, Reveille and Ode to Remembrance. I have had a lump in my throat each time.
Maybe it was because I was on my own or maybe it was the unique nature of the scene, situation and experience but I was literally moved to tears.
The bottom line is I walked back down the driveway feeling like I had indeed been to an Anzac Day Dawn Service and a very special one at that.
LEST WE FORGET
