A
repost: Memorial Day
So many
of us were able to enjoy the weekend and today Memorial Day is a bonus day of
delight, barbeques, and picnics along with family/friend gatherings.
In my
youth, Memorial Day was different. It was a day of remembrance, honor and
appreciation of those who died in the service to our nation. We had our
gatherings too, but they were always after a parade.
I lived
in a small village and parades were loosely organized. School bands marched
playing Souza’s tunes and the service anthems. The Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and
Cub Scouts paraded in uneven lines as the local fife and drum corps headed up
the volunteer firemen and a police contingent. The Ladies Auxiliary from the
VFW posts marched too. They always seem to march with a grace that the vets
couldn’t muster.
My
friends and I rode our bikes festooned with red, white and blue crinkled crape
paper woven in the wheel spokes. We inserted a piece of cardboard attached to
the bike frame into the spokes. It rattled like a motor as the wheel turned. We
kids would ride between the marching groups; little American flags taped to our
handlebars fluttered in the peddled breezes.
The
guests of honor were always the veterans. Some wore their old uniforms and
proudly displayed battle and campaign ribbons. Tight fitting uniforms kept the
bulges of time from being too noticeable. Their step was proud as they kept
their eyes ahead and heads held high.
The
veteran contingents marched together by the war in which they served. In my
small town in central New York, the largest groups at that time were the vets
from World War Two; that war had ended only a few years earlier. Then came the
doughboys from World War One. They were older and fewer. The oldest veterans,
two from the Spanish American War rode in a convertible at the head of the
parade. The next year they were gone and a Medal of Honor recipient rode at the
head of the parade.
The
parade ended at a local monument honoring all those from the area who died in
war. Their names were embossed in bas-relief bronze on a plaque bolted to
chiseled granite.
Memorial
Day Celebrations in those days engendered a reverence for the fallen. Even as
youngsters we felt a connection to those who had passed. We all knew someone
whose Father didn’t come home and we all stood straight and still for Taps.
Little
did we know then that Korea, Quemoy and Matsu, Vietnam, Iraq one, Grenada and
Iraq two and Afghanistan would follow and there would be new war veterans
marching.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful that in some
future time Memorial Day would have no new names to remember?
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