Remember this song?

[dixiegrrrrl]

WHERE'S MY APPLE PIE?
(Words and Music by Joan Baez) - 1974


Been sitting on old park benches
Brother, hasn't it been fun?
But you remember me from the trenches
I fought in World War One
Yes, you saw us off at the troop train
Smiling a brave goodbye
But where were you when we came home
To claim our apple pie

Oh where's our apple pie, my friends?
Where's our apple pie?
We've walked and wheeled from the battlefield
Now where's our apple pie?

World War Two was a favorite
God was surely on our side
The teenage kids enlisted with
The blessings of their daddys' pride
Well the wars may change but not so the glaze
In the young boys' eyes
When they cry out for their mamas
In the hours before they die

Oh where's our apple pie, my friends?
Where's our apple pie?
We've walked and wheeled from the battlefield
Now where's our apple pie?

I volunteered for the last one
And I don't want to moralize
But somehow I thought we deserved the best
For the way we threw away our lives
For we all believed in something
I know it wasn't very clear
But I know it wasn't rats in a hospital room
And a broken-down wheelchair

Oh where's our apple pie, my friends?
Where's our apple pie?
We've walked and wheeled from the battlefield
Now where's our apple pie?

Yes, Johnny finally got his gun
Before he got his apple pie
Now he hasn't got a hand to eat it with
But still he doesn't want to die
Because he prefers to go on fighting
And let his baby brother know
When the next time around the call goes out
It's "Hell no, we won't go!"

There'll be no World War Three, my friends
There'll be no World War Three
We've walked and wheeled from the battlefield
There'll be no World War Three

[midnight]

1. I just listened to this on you tube. The thought of teenagers

signing up for war is something that I didn't realize was so common that a song could be written about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO9QUAJlFyM

[david13]

2. It's nothing new.

I just watched the film from 1968, The Girl on a Motorcycle, and she's going to see her boyfriend.
"Daniel", she talks to him before she gets there, "were you ever a soldier? I can't imagine you taking orders from anyone. You'd never fall for that flag waving crap!"
And Vietnam. What is different there now, for having dropped 2 million tons of explosives on the place. Nothing. And having seen 60,000 soldiers die there.
And yet today all we hear about is how important their service in Vietnam was.
It reminds me of the song by Procol Harum, Conquistador. "Conquistador, you did not conquer, only die."
There is nothing heroic about a soldier dying. It is not his job to die. Quite the contrary.
dc

[gleaner]

3. I do remember the song ....

It puts me in mind of my Grandfather who went off to World War I thinking he was performing a noble duty that would make a difference.

He fought for months in the trenches and then they were gassed with Mustard Gas. Even though he was wearing a gas mask he got enough gas to damage his lungs. He coughed blood every day for most of the rest of his life. He was weakened to the point where he was unable to do any type of physical labor including running his small farm.

He also came home with what we would call PTSD, but then it was called "Battle Fatigue" and was considered a mark of cowardice. No one knew how to treat it, and no one tried. His mood swings and flashbacks cost him his marriage to my grandmother and his children were eventually taken and placed with relatives where they suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse before they were given a safe haven by Grandpa's father and mother. Their own mother entered into a series of abusive relationships herself and died very young of a malignant tumor on her throat.

My Grandfather's life consisted of drinking wine and a his remarriage to the hired girl who worked for him who was slightly retarded. He said it was a relief because he didn't have to have conversations with her and she never asked questions.

They lived in another state, but he did come to visit us once even though he hated travel. He was tall, emaciated and almost shadow like. He took a liking to me and told me some of the thoughts he had kept to himself because I was quiet and tended not to talk very much. One thing he said has stuck with me all my life. He said that there is no Hell after death. Hell is here and now in the lives we make for ourselves. He said he had learned this during the war and that if he had known what he was choosing and what the outcome for both himself and the country had been he never would have gone. I thought a lot about his life.

My great great grandfather was a Quaker. His son chose another faith and that is how I was raised, but when I was protesting the war in Viet Nam, I worked with local Quakers and read the literature they had and after I got older I returned to them. I especially like the peace ethic starting from within one's self and spreading to the larger world. I think it wold have made my Grandpa happy too. The best thing he could wish anyone was a life of peace.