ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS SYMBOLIZE REAL HEROES OF LONG-AGO WARS.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

PORTER RANCH - There is a wonderful story behind those little artificial flowers 84-year-old World War II veteran Vic Camarena handed to 1-year-old Morgan Cartwright, and his 3-year-old brother, Tristan, outside the Porter Ranch Wal-Mart on Thursday morning.

The kids were still too young to understand it, but someday their mom, Kim, would explain it to them.

She'd tell her boys why, like a lot of the shoppers who stopped to hand these Veterans of Foreign Wars veterans a few dollars for a buddy poppy before entering the store, she said ``thank you.''

Not for the flower, but for what men like Camarena - the most-decorated WWII vet in Granada Hills VFW Chapter 2323 - did for this country when they were young men called to war.

Now, they are old, sitting in chairs in the shade this Memorial Day weekend, outside supermarkets and chain discount stores that will let them, taking donations for an artificial flower that has become this country's memorial flower - its symbol of all those who died in this nation's wars.

The poppies are made throughout the year by disabled vets, men and women living in VA hospitals around the country, and taking part in therapy programs.

Making the flowers gives them some extra spending money to buy toiletries and other little things they might need, says Tom Kissell, who runs the Buddy Poppy program nationally from the VFW's Kansas City, Mo., headquarters.

From these hospitals, 14 million poppies move out every year to more than 9,000 VFW posts throughout the world so men like Camarena, Vern Peters and Max Quinton of the Granada Hills VFW post can spend their Memorial Day weekend handing them out in the memory of comrades who never made it home.

Most people never ask, Peters says, but two older women did Thursday morning as they paused inside the store to put on their poppies.

``I wonder where the money goes,'' one of them said to the other.

Peters smiled. He knows exactly where the money goes. To local vets who have fallen on hard times, and to their widows.

``Every dime we collect goes into a special post relief fund account for vets in dire need or to help their families while they're in the hospital,'' he said. ``We also help fund monthly recreational therapy programs for the guys over at the Sepulveda VA.''

Over the years, the VFW has raised million of dollars from the sale of these poppies, said Kissell, but it's been getting tougher each year to keep the numbers up.

Not because people aren't buying them, but because sites are getting harder to come by, and a lot of the guys are getting too old to be sitting out there all day.

``The days of street distribution have diminished because, unlike Wal- Mart, which has been faithful to us, a lot of other big stores don't want us in front of their places,'' Kissell said.

``They say if they do it for us, they have to do it for other groups. Then there's local ordinances and liability issues we run into.

``The bottom line is, it's getting tougher and tougher for our guys to be out there selling these poppies.''

It would be a crime, these men say, if the time ever came when Memorial Day rolled around, and you didn't see a handful of old vets sitting in the shade outside a store, handing out poppies.

Those artificial flowers mean too much to this country to ever let the tradition slowly die out with a generation.

``You see it in people's eyes when they walk up from the parking lot, and see my dad wearing all his medals, sitting there holding those poppies,'' says Tony Camarena, Vic's son and a Vietnam vet.

``They want to meet and touch something real, and my dad's as real as you can get,'' he said. ``Normandy, Utah Beach and Battle of the Bulge. Three bronze medals and five battle stars.''

A young woman walks up to Vic and gently touches his arm. ``Can I say, thank you?'' she asks.

Vic smiles and hands her a buddy poppy.

Then this 84-year-old veteran laden in war medals and as real as it gets, slowly rose from his folding chair, and walked to a nearby shopping cart where a couple of young brothers were getting a free ride from their mom.

Vic and his son patted them on the head, and handed them a poppy.

Someday, when the boys are old enough to understand, their mom promises to tell them the story behind those artificial flowers.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Buying a poppy this weekend means you support a needy veteran or his family.

(2 -- color) Vietnam veteran Tony Camarena, left, helps his dad, World War II vet Vic Camarena, hand out fund-raising VFW memorial poppies to Morgan Cartwright, 1 1/2, and Tristan Cartwright, 3.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer