Memorial Parade

Today our community celebrated Memorial Day. The photo above surprised me at the quality example of Americana it projects to the viewer. It reminds me of some of the images in a beautiful book, From Sea to Shining Sea, by Hiroji Kubota that my brother gave me several years ago.

Waiting for the service to begin.The day begins with a service on the lawn of a local church. We sang My Country 'Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful, and the National Anthem and listened to a choir then a band perform some other patriotic selections. The mayor gave a brief address and a prayer for veterans and armed forced currently in service and area safety forces was offered.

Then we turned our chairs from the podium toward the street to watch the parade. Boy Scout groups,a high school band, and flag corps safety forces, Veterans groups, Indian Guides groups and others all marched or walked in the parade. Some groups tossed candy to the children who lined the street.

This is supposed to be a photo of the bagpiper, but the kid on the little scooter is cute too. At the conclusion of the parade veteran's graves at the local cemetery are decorated, there is a gun salute, and taps is played.

This is the first year I have received a program for the Memorial service. I was fascinated to learn that the local cemetery holds the grave site of one Revolutionary War veteran.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's

Decoration Day

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry's shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon's sudden roar,
Or the drum's redoubling beat.

But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.

Decoration/Memorial Day

Monday marks Memorial Day for Americans.

Following the War Between the States (also called the American Civil War) this custom was founded, as described on the history dot com website.

General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former sailors and soldiers. On May 5, 1868, Logan declared in General Order No. 11 that:

The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

(Photo by John Metzler, Superintendent)

The day has inspired poets for generations.

In Flanders Fields
John McCrae, 1915.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This is a doll given to my grandmother by the US Army when my grandfather went away to war in 1944. My grandfather was a merchant mariner for most of WWII. He served on the Samuel Dexter, a liberty ship, until it sank in the north Atlantic 1943 or 1944. (I found web pages claiming both years. Dad recalls it was 1943.) The Samuel Dexter was a liberty ship, built as a commercial vessel to serve the US Navy as an auxiliary ship. After the ship sank my Papa got a free trip home on the Queen Elizabeth.

He was drafted into the US Army in 1944. He went to basic training at Fort Hood, Texas and served as an accountant at Fort Sam Houston (also in Texas) until his release on VJ day, 8/15/1945. He did a job that would probably be called data processing today, working with binary code and machines that read punch cards.

Afterward, my Papa served in the Reserves until the Korean War. His unit was activated and he served in Atlanta, Georgia as a master sergeant.