Yes, you should stop for a minute

when the bugle sounds.

I had to be out and about yesterday. It was an opportunity to observe people observing Remembrance Day.

There were a few people wearing poppies. I had spoken to a woman as we were waiting for a train. We exchanged patterns for knitted poppies and thoughts about the importance of the day. 

I went into one of our biggest shopping centres. It still has a bank there, one where there are actually ATMs and you can get actual money. I needed some actual money, not a card, for another purpose. 

I was about to go into the bank when the warning for the minute's silence came on. As is my custom I stopped instantly. A man coming towards me asked, "Is it eleven?" 

"Just on," I told him and he joined me. Around us many people kept moving. One or two more had stopped. A girl asked, "What's going on?" 

"Remembrance Day observance," I told her. She looked startled but stayed where she was. Opposite her a mother with two children of around nine or ten stopped and told her children to "stand still. I'll explain in a moment."

The Last Post sounded and then the Ode. I looked at the people around me. Yes, some of them had stopped but others were moving on as if nothing was happening at all.

Those who had stopped were quiet, even the children. One of them was looking uncertainly at his mother. The other seemed to know something important but not alarming was going on.

It was all over very quickly, just that moment to pause and reflect. 

The man who had asked if it was eleven o'clock gave me a nod and went on. I heard the mother explaining to her two children what had just happened. I wondered why they had not been taught about this in school but at least their mother knew and cared enough to stop.

I wondered about so many other people there who just continued shopping or were sitting drinking coffee as if nothing was happening at all. Yes, there were some people from different ethnic groups there but there were also many people who almost certainly would have had ancestors who had actually fought in that war, in other wars. 

Is it really too much to stop for a few minutes and think you might not be there at all and thank those who made it possible?