Memorial Day, An American Experience

Here in Michigan Memorial Day is a big deal--parades down small-town main streets, trips to the cemetery where veterans' graves (including my dad's) are marked with brand new American flags, speeches by politicians using crackling sound equipment, and bands playing "Stars and Stripes, Forever." It is a time to pause and think about sacrifices--ultimate sacrifices--some people and their families are making to ensure that the American experiment continues unabated. Each one of us probably knows a person serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, for we are a nation at war.

All of my adult life has been spent living and working South of the Mason-Dixon Line where Memorial Day is viewed with some ambivalence as a Yankee holiday. In Alabama and Georgia there's more zeal for a Confederate Memorial Day that they celebrate earlier in May to commemorate not only fallen Confederate soldiers but also the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston, C.S.A., to General William T. Sherman, U.S.A. on April 26, 1865.

Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana celebrate on June 3, Jefferson Davis's Birthday. Confederate "Decoration Day" dates are decided by each celebrating state--somehow fitting that the conflict fought on the states' rights issue is memorialized by the states...

Natives of the Midwest may not even know that the customs around their  holiday date back to the Civil War becasue for them Memorial Day is the beginning of summer. And in the upper Midwest summer, even more than Memorial Day, is the really big deal.

Summer is more appreciated in climes where winter rules for long cold months. More people have convertibles. Men wear half-sleeve shirts when the temperature gets into the 60s. Women stick to "white shoes between Memorial Day and Labor Day." And, most people go to their summer places--cottages, camping, and boating--for this long weekend.

All through junior high and high school, I celebrated Memorial Day by having a beach party for my friends. Sunburns were the order of the day. People at my class reunions still talk about coming to those beach parties and pictures of them have showed up on Facebook. Oh my!

 My house near Lake Michigan is the summer place for our family. Last year, one of my three sons brought his family for the long weekend. We went to the beach (even though the temperature didn't get above 70F) every day, and we had the traditional hot dog and S'mores event around a roaring beach fire. My neighborhood here, comprised of some "year-'round" houses and some cottages, has filled up. American flags are flying from the porches. Friends will gather to catch up on a year's events and to mark the beginning of another summer season.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping at a local Walmart. Bad timing on my part! Distance to my parking spot could have been measured in fractions of a mile, and the aisles were so crowded that they were difficult to navigate. It's similar to Race Weekend in Bristol. Shopping carts were full of beer and picnic supplies, and cars in the parking lot pulling trailers and campers were stuffed to the gills with folded up lawn chairs, golf bags, barking dogs, and squirming kids.

Memorial Day. Lots of American experiences rolled into one long weekend. Happy Holiday!