The Way I See It

By Sharon Bouchard

A time to remember

Another Memorial Day is coming right up. The official kick-off to the summer season even though summer doesn’t actually begin until June 21. Still, Memorial Day marks the beginning of camping, cookouts, beach trips, getting the garden in and a lot of other outdoor events.

It also seems to be an opportunity for an extended weekend, blowout sales events, lawn and garden center sales and a few other big commercial promotions. I think, as a society, we have forgotten what Memorial Day represents and this year is a good time to be reminded that there is more to it than hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill.

We have lost over 4,000 of our military men and women in Iraq and a sizable number in Afghanistan, so this may be a good time to revisit the origins of Memorial Day.

The history books tell us that Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868, by Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11 and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. However, where it all began is a matter of much dispute.

There are 24 communities in the United States that lay claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. In May of 1966, President Lyndon Johnson, on behalf of the United States Government sanctioned Waterloo, N.Y., as the “official” birthplace of Memorial Day because that town’s earliest observance in 1866 was considered to be so well planned and complete.

Some people from the other 23 communities still dispute that Waterloo merited the designation. The story I like best takes place two years before in 1864 in Boalsburg, Pa. Legend has it that on a warm summer day a young lady by the name of Emma Hunter, along with her friend, Sophie Keller, gathered some flowers and visited the cemetery where Emma’s father was recently laid to rest. Dr. Reuben Hunter, a surgeon in the Union Army, had died a short while before and the grieving Emma wanted to pay her respects.

While at the cemetery, Emma and Sophie encountered Mrs. Elizabeth Meyer, who was there to place flowers on the grave of her son Amos, who as a private in the ranks, had fallen on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The young girls and the older woman shared the stories of how their loved ones came to rest where they were. One, an officer and a surgeon, the other an enlisted man, leaving the family farm to do his duty.

The ladies decided that they would meet a year from that date and honor the memory of their family members. As the year wore on they shared their story with other townspeople who shared it with yet other townspeople. On the appointed day a year later as the women went to the cemetery, they found the entire town of Boalsburg had shown up and flowers were strewn on every single grave.

I don’t think it really matters where the tradition of placing flowers on the graves began and I don’t think it matters that what was once called Decoration Day is now called Memorial Day. I think what matters is the fact that we have lost touch with its importance.

It’s fine to have a cookout if the weather allows. It’s perfectly OK to go to the beach or plant your garden. It is a long weekend and the first one after a long, hard winter, so it should be enjoyed. But, I ask you to take a little time out of your holiday festivities to go to a parade if it is possible. Go to the cemetery if you can and place a flower on the grave of a family member, even if you don’t know who they are because they died long ago. And if you can’t get away, if there are no parades in your area, if the cemetery is not a place you can get to for whatever reason, you can take a few moments on Monday to remember someone you love who is now gone. You can take a few moments out of your busy schedule to say a silent prayer or have a positive thought for the soldiers we have lost and the ones who are still in harms way.

You may be someone who feels that we are in the middle of a just war or you may, like myself, feel that this country had no valid reason to be in Iraq. It really doesn’t matter, as long as we all feel that we should honor our fallen heroes and hope/pray that there will be very few more to fall.

I know that this is supposed to be a humor column and most of the time it is, but the way I see it, some things are not very funny, but they are still worth writing about. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.