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First observed as Decoration Day on May 30, 1868, Memorial Day is observed in every state on the last Monday in May.
There is a plethora of information available regarding its origins and which state(s) claim to have celebrated it first.
Barbecues, first camping trips of the year, parades, and flags are locked into my memories about past Memorial Day celebrations. I have many service vets in my family who lost comrades and buddies in various wars through the decades. For me, that’s who it’s about.
TKZers, what does Memorial Day mean to you, and how does your family celebrate it?
On Memorial Day I feel lucky. Five generations of my mother’s family served in the US Army. All of them came home, although some lost friends in their respective wars.
I try to watch the changing of the Sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The 3rd infantry regiment has an interesting Facebook page https://linktr.ee/3dusinfantryregiment?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3UFP06IDgt1-Me1-zUusHad8ZabfDr2d7Fo8AdquBilS2XY8QB4gq5nrs_aem_AY-5am27G-E8DGZf6ldR1RBr4Zc6zggBdXoOTkc0EnLmi7ntDMYliiYFArPwCWACWHyWMvtYCz5GeIGlL2umQOk1
This year will be a little different. The oldest child graduates from Transylvania University with a BA in Biology! Yes there really is a Transylvania U. Of course it has a ghost story. Elaine Viets was kind enough to factionalize Transylvania U. In Curse of Night.
Wow, Alan, what a cool website! I am always so grateful when I see uniforms and the men and women who wear them proudly.
Thank you for sharing this. Hope you have a great weekend!
🙂
Naturally, the team mascot at Transylvania U. is a bat. I loved writing about that school in The Dark of Night.
The weather in New Hampshire rarely cooperates on Memorial Day weekend. On the rare occasion that it’s nice out, we’ll go to a cookout. Not this year as rain is in the forecast.
I hear ya, Sue…PNW weather is always iffy this time of year. We’ve had weeks of cold winds and rain. I’m so ready for summer.
Have a great NH weekend . . . and I hope you get a sun break soon!
Memorial Day means more and more each passing year, especially as I see increasing ingratitude in Americans who seem to forget just how blessed we have been and the people who’ve paid the ultimate price for it. Something that occurred not just once, but many times over because, as the saying goes, “freedom isn’t free.”
I give thanks that my Dad was one of the ones who made it home from Vietnam service.
Thinking about our service members and what they’ve been through really puts your day in perspective when your worst problem is you lost a document you thought you’d saved.
Memorial Day is like pre-July 4th. I’m so very thankful to be free and thankful for those who ensured I could be.
BK, you are so right about the increasing ingratitude in Americans who seem to forget just how blessed we have been and the people who’ve paid the ultimate price for it.
Especially amongst those who demand their “rights” without acknowledging where those rights came from.
And thanks for the reminder that my petty little problems pale in comparison to the sacrifices made by our vets and their families.
Have a good one!
Hi, Deb. For me Memorial Day is about remembering those who sacrificed so that all of us could be free. I think of Gettysburg, Omaha Beach, Iwo Jima, and on.
My dad and his three brothers all served in the U.S. Military, each in a different branch. The oldest brother, my Uncle Paul. served in the USN in the Pacific in WW2, aboard one of the larger landing craft during the island campaign. My Uncle Loren served in the US Army in post-war Germany, while my Dad served in the US Air Force during the Korean War, as a member of a B-29 crew. The youngest brother, my Uncle Ralph, served in the US Marine Corps just after that war.
I think of their service, and those of so many more, to help keep the freedom that had been so hard-won.
As for celebrating Memorial Day, my family did and still often does get together for a barbecue, weather and schedules permitting.
Hi Dale! Looks like your family is one of those whose hands I’d love to shake and thank for their service. That’s something I try to do as often as possible–I want those folks to know that someone remembers.
My dad served in the Korean war and the beginning of the Vietnam war in the Navy. He was an electrician on a ship. My uncle served in WWII in the Army. I have a son-in-law who served in the Navy for 24 years. He was also an electrician, and rose in rank to Chief Petty Officer. And my brother was in the Coast Guard.
I owe all of these family members (and many other friends) a debt of gratitude I’ll never be able to repay. They all came home, thankfully, but lost so many comrades.
Hope you have a great weekend, my friend!
Summer in Montana only lasts 100 days (if that). Memorial Day weekend almost always rains, making the first camping trip of the season pretty miserable. Sure enough, it’s raining today, expected to last over the weekend with a little sun on Monday.
Lilacs are in bloom. I’ll probably take some to the graves of two friends who were veterans (WWII and Vietnam) b/c their families are mostly gone or moved away. Conrad Cemetery is a beautiful old place on rolling hills with mountain views and many graves dating from the late 1800s. My friends both suffered long-lasting war wounds (PTSD and Agent Orange). They found peace there.
Good morning, Debbie.
What a beautiful thing to do for your friends, and it sounds like in a beautiful place.
Montana sounds a bit like Washington (and New Hampshire, by Sue’s description). But we take what we can get, right?
Have a good one! 🙂
Great topic for this weekend, Deb
I am thankful to those who served to preserve and protect our freedom.
Growing up, Memorial Day was a day to watch the parade in our little town, eat junk food, and enjoy a family picnic…knowing that the summer had arrived and my dad had lots of work lined up for us.
“Eat junk food” . . . yyaaaass! Mom was very strict about that. I can’t remember ever seeing a can or bottle of pop in our fridge! But, on holidays? Bring it on, she always said.
I think we’ll be staying home this year, but we have a smoker, so I’ll probably whip up something for the man and the dog.
Thanks for waving your flag this morning, Steve!
My husband served in the U.S. Navy in the 60’s. Fortunately, that was just before the big buildup for Vietnam, so he never saw combat.
Several years ago, I was asked to write an essay about a WWII veteran’s service during the Battle of the Bulge for inclusion in an anthology about war veterans. I got to know 98-year-old Charlie Henderson through a number of phone interviews, and I was privileged to share his story in the anthology.
https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Young-Veterans-Stories-Sacrifice-ebook/dp/B0BL1ZC25P
When Charlie passed away a couple of years ago, his nephew called to tell me Charlie had asked that copies of the essay I wrote be printed and handed out at his funeral. I wish we could provide that service to every person who wore the uniform.
Several of the characters in Lacey’s Star are Vietnam veterans, and I dedicated the book to all the men and women who have served in the U.S. military.
Thanks, Kay, and please thank your husband for his service for me. I’m giving him a virtual handshake. 🙂
My novel, The Master’s Inn, has two Marine veterans as main characters. I dedicated that novel to Pointman International Ministries. You can find their website at https://www.pmim.org.
They are an organization that serves veterans and their families, and are quite active in our little town here in the PNW.
Thanks for your comments, and hope you have a great weekend!
My father and both uncles served in WWII, and my uncle Ed suffered painful burn wounds on his back that plagued him his entire life. Memorial Day was the kickoff for summer, but as kids our parents reminded us why we had this day. The words of Franklin Roosevelt are still true: “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”
Good morning, Elaine.
I wonder how many parents these days remind their kiddos why we celebrate Memorial Day. My parents did, and my dad was adamant that “this day is not for me, it’s for my buddies who didn’t come home–and their families.”
I love the Roosevelt quote. It ought to be more quoted.
Have a good weekend!
It’s May so of course it’s raining in Mississippi. I had several friends who died in Vietnam and I think about them on Memorial Day. Like others, I am afraid that the generation growing up will not know why we celebrate Memorial Day.
Hey, Patricia! I agree…this generation knows very little of what was drilled into my head, for sure.
Maybe when we have no rights left, they’ll get it.
In the meantime, Good Memorial Day to you & yours.
As I do all other patriotic holidays.
A bit of background: our fourth floor apartment is over our retirement community’s entrance – and I sit at my computer all day most days, which puts me at eye level with our US flag.
We’ve been here five years, and so far I’ve reported (and nagged until they replaced) THREE unraveling US flags. It may be the wind, which kicks up here periodically on the California plains around Davis, or they need to buy better flags, but it seems excessive, and it’s disrespectful, and not a good look for visitors and future residents.
Somehow it has become my self-appointed job, especially important right before holidays.
Just did it again.
Alicia, and an important job it is. That’s another must-do that’s become lost in me-too and what-about-my-rights rhetoric.
Thank you for taking care of our precious flag, and I hope there’s some thank-yous coming your way from other residents and families. Sometimes being a lone voice of patriotism is thankless.
Have a good weekend!
My grandfather was 13 years old for the first Memorial Day, May 30, 1868. He did not serve.
My uncle Ward, however, volunteered and went to France. He kept my mother and his siblings abreast of where he was serving by including little hints. E.g., “Remember the story about Joan of Arc in our reader?” By that she knew he was at Domrémy. He told his mother he was driving an ambulance, when he actually was driving a munitions truck. He once saw a German plane fly over and drop two bombs on a town nearby. Ward knew that type of plane held three bombs, so when it headed towards him, he bailed out of the truck and headed for cover. He said the bomb made a crater big enough to put a house in. His hearing was never quite the same. After the war, he said, “If we ever have another war, they’ll have to sift every ash heap in Ohio to find me.” Then he’d add, “Unless we declare war on England. Then I’ll be the first man at the table to enlist.” They called WWI “the war to make the world safe for democracy.” It was the war to expand the British Empire. They got the “out of the trenches by Christmas” part wrong, too.
My father was in the SATC (“Saturday Afternoon Tea Club”) in 1918, but the war ended before he entered the Army. He did induction medical exams for the Selective Service System during WWII.
My writer best friend, David Kenney, was in the OSS in China, 20 miles from the Japanese lines, in ’44 and ’45. I visit him every Sunday. Here’s his book:
https://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Wichita-David-Kenney/dp/1591298342/
“Mark Logan, touring by bicycle, is stranded in Acreage, California, Parsnip Capital of the World, after losing his wallet. Detesting its small-town politics and gruesome restaurant fare (parsnip pie, anyone?), he longs to return to Wichita. When his wallet mysteriously turns up under a murdered young woman’s bed, he’s arrested . . .
J, your story about your uncle reminds me of some espionage thrillers I’ve read. What an ingenious way to keep your mom informed!
Thanks for the link…I’ll have to check it out.
Have a good weekend…