Memorial Day is nearly here. Monday is a day set aside to honor veterans and those who have served this country. In our family, it is also a day to honor family members and friends.
Memorial Day has alway been special to me, but probably even more so in recent years. We’ve always gathered together as a family, loaded “pine-ees” (as my mom calls them) into the trunk, and left for cemetaries throughout Anderson.
The traditions remain rooted in the past soil where we plant the flowers every year. As a small child I volunteered to ‘get the water.” It’s still my job. Every cemetery once had a spigot within easy distance to the graves. These are gone now, so the walk for water is a bit more involved. Usually I cheat and put the water in a bucket at the entrance, then drive VERY slowly back into Maplewood. In a pinch a few years ago I used bottled water. I think my brother would have appreciated the humor.
The family stories, like the traditions, are well worn but repeated every Memorial Day. “This is your cousin who…” Old favorite stories about how this one got out of the army or that one died under “mysterious circumstances.” These are the patches and threads that I examine every year and enjoy. We decorate the remembered heros in our own family and skip over “old so-and-so, who really wasn’t very nice…”
There are a series of little flat headstones near our family plot, on a hill at Maplewood. When I was little, my mom would scold me every Memorial Day for walking on those stones. It was only in the last few years she admitted that as a little girl her mother scolded her for the same walk. It’s the past and remembering those of long ago which binds us together as friends, family, and a nation.
Pass along stories and traditions this Memorial Day and help the next generation remember the folks who came before it. Remember, if YOU’RE telling the story…you can be the hero. “Sure, I saved Patton’s life, let me tell you how….”
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