The 1918 equivalent of "When I was your age, I walked to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways!" Or maybe not.
I like to think that this is exactly what they were fighting for, a life free of war and strife, a life of comfort and ease.
I digress. Anzac Day has grown to become a major community event in recent years, one where thousands of people bundle up in their winter clothing, pin red poppies to their chests, drag their children out of bed and stand in the bracing wind as the haunting Reveille ushers in the rising sun.
It's a poignant ceremony and gives us all a brief moment of camaraderie among strangers.
Then, with the solemnity lingering, we return to our homes, brew a hot drink, eat our breakfast and continue with our day.
Our poppies are discarded, our shops reopen and we return to our regular lives, solemnity forgotten until next year.
Then, four days later another major conflict is marked, but with much less fanfare.
Pukehinahina, the Battle of Gate Pā, was fought 158 years ago today, right here in our own home turf.
There is a commemoration service today to remember this battle, starting at 4pm – the time that British forces began their march up to the site which, in 2022, is a quiet, leafy reserve bordered by a large (one might even say mega) bright orange hardware store.
That battle was one of the most important of the New Zealand Wars – one where outnumbered Māori employed sophisticated tactics to rout the British and then displayed remarkable compassion and care for the enemy wounded.
Pukehinahina is slowly becoming part of the local lexicon thanks to the tireless work done by a dedicated team around the recent 150-year commemoration events and further education in schools.
But outside the Bay of Plenty and scholarly circles, it's not a name that would garner much recognition with the wider public.
Even the New Zealand Wars themselves are barely a blip on our national consciousness.
The only major events of our country's history that I was taught about in school were the signing of Te Tiriti and the two world wars, and I bet most adults today would tell a similar story.
Before the 150-year commemoration events for Pukehinahina, I could have told you more about the Russian revolution and the Black Plague than the battles that happened only a few kilometres away from my home.
Why have we been so scared to acknowledge such a huge part of our country's history?
It's as if our collective consciousness recoils from the idea that we of British heritage are here today because some of our ancestors did things we would not be proud of.
As if by addressing it out loud, the guilt might stick to us.
Easier to hide the shame and pretend the early British settlers were all upstanding citizens seeking freedom from their oppressors perhaps. Or for people to wrongly believe that the reason white New Zealanders own the majority of the land is because some disaffected Māori individuals sold parcels of it behind their own tribes' backs in exchange for blankets and tobacco.
Thankfully, our future generations will no longer be as ignorant of our past as I was, now that teaching New Zealand history has become compulsory in our schools.
On June 24 we will, for the first time, celebrate Matariki as a nation. It is the only Māori culture-centric public holiday we have.
It's nice that it's a positive event, especially as the only other New Zealand-specific public holiday on our calendar, Waitangi Day, is a source of pain and conflict.
Despite that, I hope one day we can add a New Zealand Wars commemoration day to that list.
Our history isn't black and white. It's that and everything in between.
There are things we can be bloody proud of and, yes, some things that really should make us hang our heads in shame.
But hiding away from it isn't going to erase the past. Learning from our mistakes is how we as humans grow and become stronger, better people.
