Memorial Day Thoughts

Every Memorial Day morning many years ago, we would gather at the community center. As a child in a small town it was our duty to arrive early to go over our assignments for the morning. We were handed red poppies and small crosses. After a prayer and program, we would drive to the small country cemetery and visit the graves of the soldiers.  A few had died in battles, more from old age. World War I ,II and one in Vietnam. I remember how solemn it all was and how proper. There were men dressed in military garb and much of the community took part. We placed the poppies and the crosses on the graves and at the end the best trumpet player in our high school played taps. And that was that. There was a bit of chit-chat with the neighbors and then we drifted off toward our perspective family burial plots and visited some distant relatives grave that I had never known. At the age of six or seven, I had not experienced death except for a pet. I still recall the quiet sadness of it all even to this day.

Thank you all for serving our country so honorably. A special thanks to friends and relatives who are members of the armed services.

Thank you Kelly, Aaron, Shawn, James, Joseph, Betsye and Philip.