Memorial Day

The history of Memorial Day is interesting.

"Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Sharpsburg, Maryland, located near Antietam Battlefield; Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Petersburg, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns. These observances coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days."

It was still called Decoration Day when I was a child. We would take time each Decoration Day to decorate graves of the fallen soldiers. That usually gave us time to reflect on the lives of our relatives who passed also and it became popular to decorate all graves at the cemetary.

If I am done planting I always go to observe the holiday by visiting friend and family gravesites. My favorite was always Grandpa and Grandma Winkle at Mowrystown. There are more Winkle gravesites than any cemetary I have ever found at Mowrystown. They have the prettiest site under a big old shade tree at the edge of the cemetary overlooking the whole field.

There are lots of Kier's buried there too and that was Grandma's maiden name. Kier and Winkle on dad's side, Carrington and Gray on mom's. LuAnn likes to bring rags and soap and water to clean the stones. I like to bring flowers according to cemetary rules.

I haven't had too much luck keeping flowers on those sites so I must have good taste. If you come back a week later they are gone. I can't believe people bother other people's decorations but I think they do.

My feeling today is to do everything in my power to make this country better, not worse. I don't like the path our society has taken and join the common people in keeping our country free and good.

We have six children and their families to watch over and they are all doing a great job. We are very proud of every one of them.

I hope everyone in our country takes time this weekend to celebrated the same.

Ed