Memorial Day - Not Just for Soldiers

Memorial Day, for many Americans, just means a long weekend. For many, Memorial Day means the beginning of the summer season. Memorial Day means picnics and family get-togethers, opening the swimming pool, the beginning of tourist season.

Somewhere along the line, most of us have lost the true meaning of Memorial Day, if we ever knew it to begin with.

Memorial Day originally was intended as a day of remembrance for our soldiers who have died. Memorial Day was founded as a way of honoring the armed service men and women who had served our country so well.

When I was growing up, Memorial Day was still thought of as a day of remembrance. But the people in my community took it a step further than just remembering our fallen soldiers. Memorial Day, to us, was a day to remember and honor not only our service persons but everyone in our families who had died.

I can still remember my parents packing all of us kids in the car and trucking us to the various cemeteries where our relatives were buried. My mother knew where every one of her relatives and my father's relatives was buried. She would lead the procession to each individual gravesite. We would all be carrying the flowers and potted plants that she had meticulously picked out for each deceased person. "Grandma Shoultz liked geraniums, so these pretty ones will be for her."

At the gravesite, we would plant the flowers and plants and stand for a minutes, presumably, remembering. She and my dad might have been remembering, but most of us kids didn't even know who these people had been! But, it was a family tradition, so we went along with it. (Like we had a CHOICE!)

I was always amazed at all the people in the graveyards on Memorial Day. We always ran into other relatives and neighbors who were also there "remembering". Many times, when our parents were engaged in conversations with them, we would sneak off to investigate the interesting headstones and, hopefully, to escape further flower planting.

As you can see, the true meaning of Memorial Day was lost on me. All I wanted to do was get back home and eat my Mom's extraordinary potato salad which she always fixed for the picnic that followed the cemetery visits.

That was over 30 years ago and to this day, my parents still plant flowers on all the graves of all their relatives on Memorial Day.

Some years back, I was visiting on Memorial Day and my Dad insisted that I accompany them to the graveyards. I was willing since it had been years since I had attended the yearly trek. Then he dumbfounded me by telling me that he wanted me to learn where everyone was buried so I could carry on the tradition after he and Mom were gone. I went. And I tried to remember where everyone was, but I know that I'll never be able to find everyone.

This year, I'm going to the cemetaries with them and I'm going to take NOTES!