Compiled by The Bedford Citizen
Sunday, November 11, 2018, marks the Centenary of the Armistice to end World War I at 11 am on November 11, in 1918.
Beginning on Saturday, November 3, Bedford will observe the occasion with music and services in the historic meeting house on Bedford Common, in ceremonies conducted by Bedford’s Patriotic Holiday Committee at Veterans Memorial Park, and in events produced by the Bedford Historical Society and the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3
American Classics presents Yip! Yip! Yaphank! ~ Irving Berlin’s WWI Army Show
Ben Sears and Brad Conner, along with their performance partners in the group American Classics, will present a WWI-focused program in the sanctuary of First Parish on Bedford Common at 7:30 pm on Saturday evening, November 3.
“Yip! Yip! Yaphank!” is Irving Berlin’s WWI Army show with great songs like “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” amongst many snappy, happy numbers. Some of the Bedford “soldiers” in the cast and in the band include Conner, Ben Sears, Webb Tilney, and Dean Groves. The performance will be repeated at 3 pm on Sunday, November 4, 2018, in the Pickman Concert Hall, Longy School of Music, 27 Garden Street, Cambridge.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Learning more about Edith Nourse Rogers
On Monday, November 5, Pat Fontaine, a professor at UMass Lowell, will talk about the life and work of Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers for whom the Bedford VA is named. Fontaine’s presentation will take place at 1:30 pm in the Theatre, Building 78A, on the campus of the Bedford VA Hospital.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11
8:30 am ~ Bedford Lyceum ~ Music in World War I
First Parish Music Director, Brad Conner, will talk about music in World War I in honor of the centenary of the end of the war on November 11, 1918. The Bedford Lyceum meets at First Parish at 8:30 am on Sunday, November 11 and lasts just under an hour.
An expert on the history of American popular song, Conner along with Ben Sears and Cynthia Mork will present songs which chronicle the progression of the war through clever wordplay and sometimes even unexpected humor. There will be familiar tunes by Irving Berlin, George M. Cohan, and others, but also songs you didn’t know existed addressing the darker side of the war, including songs which were banned during the height of war fever.
10 am ~ Commemorative Armistice Service at First Parish on Bedford Common
The 10 am service at First Parish on November 11 will focus on the Armistice. With a series of readings and poetry interspersed with hymns, popular and classical music of the time, the 70-minute service will honor the Centenary of the Armistice of 1918. John McCrae’s poem, “In Flanders Fields,” will be read and poppies will be passed out to the congregation.
The First Parish bell will be rung at 11:11 am.
11:11 am ~ Flag Raising at Veterans Memorial Park
According to Commander Jon “OC” O’Connor, the American Legion will conduct a short flag-raising ceremony to mark the Armistice at 11:11 am, the hour at which the original document was signed in 1918.
Noon ~ Town of Bedford Ceremonies at Veterans Memorial Park
Veterans Day ceremonies to honor our Veterans will be held at Veterans Memorial Park, Bedford (on The Great Road across from Bedford Shopping Center) starting at noon on Sunday, November 11. In case of inclement weather, ceremonies will be moved to the Bedford High School Auditorium. Contact Paul Purchia: 781-789-8974 (cell) or 781-275-2464 (H).
Bedford’s Police and Firefighter Honor Guard will escort the Patriotic Holiday Committee members and Dignitaries from Patriot Statue along the walkway to the Monument, while Parade March is being played by the Bedford Minutemen.
Paul Purchia, Chair/Patriotic Holiday Committee and the Chaplain of the American Legion will welcome guests. Bedford Scouts will lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and the BHS Marching Band will play the Star Spangled Banner.
Speakers will include Jon O’Connor, Commander, American Legion Post 221; David Spence, Commander, VFW Post 1628; Bill Moonan, Chair, Bedford Selectmen; and State Representative Ken Gordon
Attendees are invited to remember special veterans who touched their lives by placing a flag on the Veterans Memorial Wreath of Honor and sharing the name and military service of the honored veteran.
Before the closing volley by the US Air Force Patriotic Honor Guard, the BHS Marching band will play God Bless America, and the VFW Post 1628 will offer the closing benediction.
1:30 pm ~ Vocal Revolution a cappella concert at the Bedford VA
The well-known men’s a cappella chorus Vocal Revolution salutes Veterans with the gift of song. Volunteers to help wheel Veterans from their rooms to the concert are welcome; call 781-687-3076 for more info.
3:30 pm ~ Bedford Historical Society’s Special Veterans Day Program
One of the few female Veterans Agents in Massachusetts, who fills in for Bedford’s part-time Veterans Agent, will be the Bedford Historical Society’s guest speaker at a special Veterans Day program on Sunday, November 11.
Refreshments will be available in the Great Room of Old Town Hall starting at 3:30, followed by a 4 pm talk by Gina Rada, District Director of Veterans Services for Lexington and Bedford. She will describe her experiences in Afghanistan from 2007-2008 as a member of a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), which are humanitarian missions run by military troops and civilians.
Before going to Afghanistan, Rada served in the U.S. Air Force for six years as an Aerospace Medical Service Technician at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi and Hanscom AFB in Bedford. In Afghanistan, she worked as part of a medical team accompanying U.S. Army Civil Affairs personnel into neighboring villages in Nangarhar Province near Jalalabad City to meet with the village elders, identify their needs, and devise strategies on how the military might assist. The medics set up satellite clinics in the villages and provided the locals with basic medical care and dispensed medicines.
For her service, Rada received an Army Commendation Medal for “outstanding meritorious service and commitment to excellence while deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.” She retired from the Air Force in 2008.
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