@Faye Fox I think I took my own thread off topic earlier. LOL I skied once at Hidden Valley, Wasn't good at it. I imagine that this Memorial Day may hold more remembrances of those lost to the pandemic than in wars, given the short memories we tend to have as a country. I suppose there will never not be war somewhere around the world, but it sure would be nice to have a period without it so that all the trauma, sacrifice and heartache that war creates could be halted for a while.
@Jim Brown that sounds familiar. I can vaguely remember attending something like that too, tho not sure it was for Memorial / Decoration Day.
It was actually something that we all looked forward to each year, and everyone went along. My dad was born in Bonners Ferry in 1903, and his family had come out the year before from Iowa. My grandmother was actually expecting with my dad when the family moved out. There was a lot of his family that apparently all came out together, and since I was not born until 1945, a lot of the earlier generation had already passed away before I was old enough to remember going to the cemetery each year. Mom and Dad would tell me stories about each person as we put the flowers on the graves, so it was kind of a family history time as well as having the memorial of putting flowers on the grave. The cemetery was a small country cemetery , and most of the graves had actual headstones, not the flat ones like cemeteries have now days, and I liked seeing the headstones that were elaborate, like Guardian Angels, and things like that. This is a picture of the old part of the cemetery, which is the part that we went to. It was a lot longer back into the woods than this picture looks like it went. Back then, there was no new or old part, just the part where we went, but the “new part” is the modern type of cemetery, flat and they can just mow over everything on it. Not nostalgic like the old part of the cemetery is.
@Yvonne Smith , to me something feels lost with the disuse of those old style headstones. I understand the utility and convenience of the flat kind for grounds keeping and I suppose the flat ones will be easier to read after a few centuries, but still, there was something stately about the old stones that seems to have disappeared.
Same. It was more of the "beginning of summer" holiday and we went to the beach or had a picnic. No observance of the actual meaning of the day.
Not slamming your day at the beach Beth. I just came upon this meme and it simply follows in the order of posts.
I was never able to help lay to rest any of the soldiers at Arlington but I blew Taps at around 35 other funerals in and around Georgia. When I came back from Nam my 201 file revealed that I was a soprano bugle player in a drum and bugle corps when I was 16 or so years old. So, I was volunteered for service with the Honor Guard out of Hunter Army Airfield. At the time, I was also NCOIC over an aircraft electronics section so about once or twice a week I was relieved of duty and went TDY with the Honor Guard. One thing about the Army at that time was that I was too busy to worry about PTSD but that said, many times after a funeral a bottle of CC was my best friend.
I can't imagine being on funeral detail during that era. I'd drink, too. My older brother was in The Army Band at Fort Myer. He enlisted in '64 or '65 and retired from it. Lord knows how many funerals he played for at Arlington. He played trombone and also herald trumpet for the arrival of visiting dignitaries at Washington National airport and for other events. When he died, the band members volunteered to do the Full Honors thing for him. There are no words... I've attended a few funerals here for vets. I'm always moved by the guys and gals who show at these local small cemeteries in the middle of nowhere up to play taps. The importance that act is for their families (and for the rest of us) cannot be overstated.
I just saw an infuriating article on FB saying that Maxine Waters is proposing a name change of Memorial Day to George Floyd Day. Now, we all know how reputable some things on FB can be and it was one of those, “just in” articles so I cannot presently find any other references to it but it does sound like something she might do. She and Pelosi have been pandering the GF incident to the max so I do wonder if that name change has been proposed?