I've owned my store for 4 Memorial Days. Every year I post on my outside marquee the following:
"To the uniformed men and women who gave up all their tomorrows for our today, we salute you and we thank you.
Rest In Peace."
I get phone calls from people driving bye complementing and congratulating me for it.
I tell them but for the grace of God, I'd be one of them.
Then I get the 20-30 something numbnuts and their female counterparts asking me what it's all about. I don't even both to explain it.
A customer of mine's son came home from Iraq a month or so ago and she threw him a party at the local fireman's pavillion. She contracted me for 300 pieces of chicken and 25 lbs of potato salad and coleslaw. You should have seen the look on her face when I tore up the check...
You have to have been there to really appreciate what our men and women go through. And it ain't always pretty...
"To the uniformed men and women who gave up all their tomorrows for our today, we salute you and we thank you.
Rest In Peace."
So very true CT, and a it is a beautiful tribute.
Funny, I manage two stores and we ask customers if they are eligible for the military discount...if they are, they invariably say thanks, and we gently tell them that this is our little way of saying thank-you to them.
You're right, we can't know what they wen't through in Viet Nam, or what they are going through now...but we can look for these opportunities to show them we appreciate them.