by waaytoomuchintothis » Sat May 27, 2017 7:46 pm
I was raised with the real commemorative day, May 30th. That was the day each year when we went to two graveyards to leave flowers and small flags for members of my family, killed in the Civil War (one on each side, cousins). When the holiday became a remembrance of all killed in wars in the US forces, there were two more graves to visit, the result of WWII. By the end of the Vietnam War, there was one more. My boys were aged just right to miss war entirely, for which I am eternally grateful, and so, thousands of miles from the graves I visited into mid-adulthood, I do some little something each year, anonymously, remembering what my blood has given to this nation. I only mention it to my HRW bros because there are no flowers on the graves of my family any more, no one to remember who they were, who their children and children's children were, nor how their family suffered for their loss. So I cook fun food for my neighbors, and strive to make smiles among the living.
Sunday morning I will watch Monaco Formula One, at noon Indy, and in the afternoon, NASCAR. Monday I will rest, and wonder at the sacrifice that brave idealistic boys made, and hope (nay, pray) that we are worth it.
Rob