They fought in the war so I have the freedom to choose if I sleep in on Anzac Day. That was always the common line when I was at secondary school, typical lazy teenager. It was a phase, well the ignorance was, the laziness is still there and owning it!
As ignorant and crass as it sounds, there is a little truth to it. Anzac Day should be one for reflection on what some pretty brave and scared people did for this country, not about getting up for a service. I'm an army-child. My dad was literally Major Dad. He was in the army for 20 years, also did a stint with the UN in the Middle East. His dad was in the army (World War 2). His brother was in the army. His mother was in the army. You get the drift. I've seen my fair share of uniforms, I can polish a boot to within an inch of its existence and I know my way around a military parade.
I sometimes feel I would have made my old man the most proud human on this earth if I'd gone in to the army. I have these thoughts mainly when I'm participating in radio promos. Dressing as a woman and holding a sign up on Cameron Rd advertising a ball-dress sale, was one of those times. I get over it by blaming my parents, I'm a mixture of their genes, so they can't complain about my career choice, right? Right?
What I love about the Bay is that most of us are respectful, but not too stuffy. When a cell phone goes off, or a kid laughs at his older brother during the service, no one really cares. It's life, it happens. It's what those legends years ago fought for. It was so we would have a life that was fun, full of happy memories and we would have an attitude that sets us apart from the rest of the world. They didn't fight for us to be the same as everyone else. They didn't fight for us to not to be able to laugh at ourselves and just take everything as it comes. It's just my opinion. I'm pretty sure they fought so I could have one of them too!
When I talked to dad this year he said he didn't mind whether I got up and went to a service. He said that all he hoped on for Anzac Day was that people just took a couple of minutes to think about what has happened in our past and what those people went through. It makes me sad when I do that. But that just means I care.
