The Barnaby Blog 9 May 2025

VE Day: 80 Years of Woofs and Remembrance

Woof-woof, hello friends! It's me, Barnaby, the miniature schnauzer mascot from Barnaby & Boo's ice cream café in New Malden! Today I'm taking a break from supervising ice cream scooping to put my paws to the keyboard for something important!

As my calendar shows May 8th, 2025 (I can read calendars—especially when they have treat days marked!), my whiskers are twitching with excitement about a very special day. It's the 80th anniversary of VE Day! That's when all the humans barked with joy because the big scary war in Europe finally ended. Eight decades ago, streets just like the ones where I take my daily walks erupted with celebrations!

Sniffing Out New Malden's History

My territory here in New Malden has quite the tale to tell! During something called the "London Blitz" (which sounds scarier than the vacuum cleaner!), our neighborhood got very damaged. Even St. James Church—where I sometimes sit outside during Sunday walks—still has marks from those times.

What makes my tail wag with pride is how brave the humans were back then. They stayed strong even when things went "boom" in the night. That's the kind of courage I try to show when thunder happens!

The best thing about our New Malden pack is how many different humans we have! My nose tells me we have lots of Korean friends here—one of the biggest Korean communities outside Korea! Many families in our neighborhood know what it's like when territories have conflicts, which is why everyone here values peaceful walks and friendly sniffs so much.

This year, while I'm greeting customers at Barnaby & Boo's with my best schnauzer smile, humans will gather at the New Malden War Memorial, have community events at Beverley Park (one of my favorite squirrel-watching spots!), and visit our library to see artifacts from the few elderly humans who remember those days.

Paws Around the World Remember

My human tells me that dogs and humans around the world mark VE Day in different ways. Here in the UK, there are wreath ceremonies that smell like flowers. France has parades with lots of boots marching (I'd bark along to keep rhythm!). Russia celebrates on May 9th, and Germany is very quiet and thoughtful about it all. The United States remembers too, but they were also busy with another part of the war in a place called the Pacific.

Old Scents Fading, But Never Forgotten

My schnauzer senses tell me something sad but important: the humans who saw the war with their own eyes are getting very old now—most are over 95 years old! That's ancient even in dog years! Soon, their stories will only exist in recordings and books.

That's why it's so important for young puppies—I mean, children—to learn about what happened. Just like I teach the young dogs at the park about proper stick etiquette, humans need to teach their youngsters about these serious things so the bad stuff never happens again.

Building a Better Dog Park... I Mean, World!

The big lessons from VE Day are things even we dogs understand: be alert to dangerous things, work together in a pack, remember that fighting hurts everyone, never treat others as less important, and learn to be friends after disagreements.

Here in New Malden, our pack shows how this works! Humans whose grandparents might have growled at each other now share tables at our ice cream café. They let their children play together and sometimes even share their ice cream (something I highly approve of!).

This VE Day, while I supervise from my special cushion at Barnaby & Boo's, I invite all my two-legged friends to remember together. We're having a special "Peace Pups" ice cream flavor to mark the day! After all, the best way to honor those brave humans from 1945 is to keep building a world where all dogs and humans can live happily together.

Loyal tail wags and ice cream dreams,

Barnaby 🐾

Keywords: VE Day, Victory in Europe Day, 80th anniversary, World War II, New Malden, Barnaby & Boo's, ice cream café, London Blitz, veterans, remembrance, historical legacy, peace education, Korean community, reconciliation, WWII memorials, greatest generation, 1945 celebrations

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