Memorial Day Weekend; the official kickoff of a brand new summer blanketed with high school graduations, camp for kids, big boats, tiny kayaks, celebrations at Carowinds theme park, sticky melted cotton candy glued to your fingers like double sided tape, spilled beer, burnt to a crisp BBQ with the scent of sauerkraut drifting over the fence from the new neighbors yard.
Three days of all out kick booty drop until you puke excitement that wouldn’t be if it hadn’t been for a group of Southern ladies caught decorating the gravesites of fallen men and women that served this nation during the Civil War.
Northerner’s on the other hand will fight you for this claim to fame saying President Johnson in 1966 declared Waterloo, NY the official birthplace of Memorial Day Weekend. It’s easy to see why; the state of New York was the first to layout the annual groundwork and by 1890 the majority of all northern states had turned the final weekend of May as a place of celebrating their dedication and loyalty.
And the South being the strongest sector of our collected people with its desire and passion do things its own way and with separate design had other plans; Memorial Day in Texas was on January 19th, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi set aside April 26th; South Carolina was May 10th followed by Louisiana and Tennessee on June 3rd.
The red Poppy flower has played a major role in all gatherings; although the beautiful bloom with its seeds of distant travels has evolved into an illegal drug…a single stroke from Moina Michael’s writing instrument inspired a nation to display the unforgettable bud:
We cherish too, the Poppy red that grows on fields where valor led. It seems to signal to the skies that blood of heroes never dies.
Moina is said to have been the first to wear the red Poppy later selling flowers to her friends which included a young lady from France who introduced the idea to the Franco-American Children’s League. By 1922 the VFW adopted the vision creating what’s called the Buddy Poppy Program that has raised millions of dollars for disabled and needy veterans.
By now I’ve probably lost your attention; you’ve tossed aside your reasons for stopping in and have begun a new Google search for a website that feeds your need for better natural highs. And it’s this very reason why in December of 2000 the National Moment Remembrance was introduced as a way to keep a growing America in touch with its fading history.
Memorial Day Weekend! No bosses or coworkers with unexpected interruptions, there are giant sales at Wal-Mart, Target, Ford, Lowes and Home Depot and damn if someone won’t wake up at 7am on Saturday to cut their grass because you don’t want to be the lazy a** that doesn’t look good at the block party.
While growing up my stepfather calmly reminded the boys he vowed to protect, “In this country war is great business. If you are called know in your heart I’ll never leave your mother’s side. I want you to serve this nation and it begins with honoring those who stood there before you.”
I didn’t know how serious his words were until the day we stood on the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point in Charleston and the image of every man he fought with in Germany came back to him full force knocking him to his knees. Eyes swollen, heart heavier than a setting sun, his hands shook from every question that challenged why he was one of the lucky men that got to come home. Turning to my mother he whispered, “I’m so sorry. I thought I was stronger than this…”
http://militarytimes.com/valor/
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/
Saying thank you isn’t enough…Memorial Day should be everyday in a land where freedom still doesn’t grow on trees, its earned by warriors that never stop believing that America is the greatest nation on earth.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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