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IN PELSALL, A Spitfire fighter plane is suspended in flight above the memorial clock. The wooden replica is part of Remembrance Day celebrations in the West Midlands village. The event has been a hotly anticipated annual spectacle since 2015, when an ambitious display featuring 1,500 knitted poppies hit the headlines. "We are becoming a Poppy Village," says Garry Perry, a councillor. Preparations for November 11th take up much of his year.Remembrance Day was not always as extravagant as this. In the years after the first world war, Britons were split on how best to remember the fallen. Some wanted solemn parades; others alcohol-fuelled parties. Restraint won the day. Poppies-a reference to those that grew on the battlefields-were worn, a two-minute silence was observed and veterans marched. It seemed likely that, once all the survivors of the Great War were dead, the ceremonies would wither away.