Some years they shiver, as the winter wind comes early.

Some years they stand while the raindrops pelt their hoods and drip onto their shoes.

Some years they have to squint against the thin November sunshine.

But always they come.

In towns tiny and large, in front of courthouses or in parks or in school cafeterias, they gather ever year on the 11th day of the 11th month.

Veterans Day ceremonies are decidedly local events.

Yet the people we honor when we come together are, in many cases, thousands of miles away.

Or they were when they defended our country.

They waded ashore on a bullet-swept beach at Normandy, flew through storms of flak and sailed dangerous waters.

They slogged through snow in the frigid reaches of Korea, and through mud in the fetid jungles of Vietnam.

They seared in the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan.

But wherever and whenever they served, veterans put themselves in peril on our behalf, that we could spend time with our families and friends, secure in the knowledge that we were protected.

These tributes are small things compared with the sacrifices veterans have made.

Brief interludes in a hectic world.

Yet in another way these gatherings are great indeed.

They remind us of the debt we owe veterans. It is a debt we cannot repay in kind, but one we can, and should, acknowledge.

Although Nov. 11 is the day we have designated for this, we needn’t confine our tributes to a single day, or event.

Veterans aren’t as a rule boastful, to be sure.

Many of us can recall our surprise when we learned that someone we had known for many years, a friend or perhaps even a relative, is a veteran.

But you might also pass someone on the sidewalk, or in a grocery aisle, and notice the person is wearing a hat with the word “veteran” embossed on it.

However you come to know a veteran, it is appropriate to say thank you, on Nov. 11, and on any other day the opportunity arises.