Before Congress standardized the holiday as “Memorial Day” in 1971, we called it Decoration Day. It was always on May 30th, then with the change in ‘71, it began being observed on the last Monday in May. That was the day we went to the cemetery and dressed the graves with flowers and placed American Flags for the Veterans.
As long as I can remember, we dressed in our Sunday best clothes and went to visit my Uncle Sonny’s grave who was killed in Germany when his plane crashed on 5/5/55. I can’t remember him as the last time he saw me, I wasn’t a year old. But I’ve “known” him forever. As a matter of fact, he’s one of the special people I’ll be looking forward to meeting when I get to Heaven.
We also went to Ravenswood to visit my dad’s people. The thing I remember the most about that was having a picnic supper right in the cemetery. They set up sawhorses with platters of food and I’ve always thought that was so odd. Decoration Day was always a solemn affair for my family. The loss of my Uncle Sonny was a pain that seared itself into the fabric of our beings. A generational sadness that hummed just beneath the surface like an undercurrent of electricity.
I didn’t put out flowers this year. Perhaps I’ll get some on sale after the holiday. Someone suggested you go back to the cemetery to retrieve your flower arrangements to use the following year. They aren’t cheap these days. We are supposed to have a much cooler day today than yesterday, so we may go out and visit Mr. FixIt’s people.
We didn’t get much of anything done yesterday. It was 85° and we had severe thunderstorm warnings from 4:00-9:00pm. It was just too hot to do much. I think we’re going to have to give in a buy a window air conditioner for the family room. There is absolutely no sense whatsoever to run the whole house AC when we aren’t back in that area. The only place we really need it is where we spend the most time.
It’s getting to be too hot for cooking in the kitchen. It does nothing but heat up the house. So we eat a lot of salads and sandwiches when it’s this hot. We always have a hot breakfast though. I haven’t grilled out yet. And I’ve been thinking about getting some ribs or maybe a pork picnic roast for the smoker. Corn on the cob hasn’t been too bad for this time of year. Mr. FixIt bought a watermelon the other day and I’m looking forward to cutting into it today.
And, just like that, tomorrow is June!
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“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Matthew 5:4 NIV