Memorial Day 2007

12 ‘Azamat 164 B.E. - Monday, May 28, 2007

I haven’t turned on the T.V. all morning, so I don’t know what type of Memorial Day ceremonies or specials are on. Since we haven’t taken the R.J. for several months, I don’t have a T.V. schedule in the house. I have memories of Memorial Day commemorations from previous years and from my childhood.

Memorial Day was one of the nonreligious holidays that my Grandparents always commemorated. My Grandpa never fought in a war, he was too young during World War I and too old during World War II. His brother, Uncle Roy, was in the First World War. My father, while he never went over seas, was in the Army Air Core during the Second World War. Dad was stated in Las Vegas at Nellis Air Force Base (don’t know what it was called then). I didn’t have any male relatives or know anyone who fought in the Korean Conflict. I do know several Vietnam Vets. One of my brothers was on an Air Craft Carrier during one of the Gulf Wars. That’s about the extent of my experience with Veterans.

Growing up, Memorial Day was one of those holidays that meant a Road Trip every year. However, the Road Trip consisted in visiting the graves of family and veterans in different towns in Oklahoma and Kansas. At the beginning of May, my Grandmother began preparing for the journey. She made crape paper flowers to put on the graves. When we visited some of the cemeteries, there were military ceremonies, which included the playing of taps and the firing of guns. At others, we put the crape paper flowers on the graves and then went to the next cemetery. My Grandmother always put the homemade flowers on all the relatives’ graves, not just the veterans in the family.

I remember we could always tell the graves of veterans from those of nonveterans, because little American flags were always stuck in the ground behind the headstone or sitting on the headstone itself. Some of the commentaries we visited didn’t appear to be close to a town of any size. They were just fenced graveyards in an Oklahoma or Kansas prairie, while others were just outside of small towns that had a filling station (gas station), grocery store, bank, courthouse and jail.

During those Memorial Day Road Trips, we would stop somewhere, usually outside a small cemetery and eat lunch. My Grandma Newland always packed Southern Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, soda and desert. We never worried about the Potato Salad going bad because she packed it in ice in a portable ice chest. Come to think about it, I don’t think we worried about anything on those Road Trips. We drove from commentary to commentary putting the crape paper flowers on the grave. Grandpa Newland could always tell us which relatives were World War I or World War II veterans. I don’t remember us saying prayers at the gravesites, although the preceding or following Sunday services were dedicated to Memorial Day and remembering the departed soldiers and veterans.

Today my Memorial Day commemoration will consist of a prayer for the departed. I doubt that I even turn the T.V. on before 3:00 pm. I’ll look at the 4:00 news of course, but that’s about it. I won’t go to a Memorial Day Parade, if there is one any where near by. I won’t visit one of the cemeteries here in Vegas. I haven’t decided which prayer I’ll say yet, there are several wonderful prayers for the departed in the Baha’i prayer book.