On Memorial Day we had the annual parade. We had fire engines and police cars. The VFW and American Legion marched along with the local high school marching band. We had Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Campfire Girls, Brownies and Indian Guides. In years past, the streets were lined two and three deep.
This year was disturbingly different. There were people on the streets, but there was plenty of open curb space. The population hasn’t taken a nosedive; it’s still about 53,000, but people seem to have lost sight of the reason we have a Memorial Day, and that’s a shame. World War I vets are just about all gone, World War II vets are disappearing fast. Korea was a long time ago, as was Vietnam. Maybe it takes a current war to give people a patriotic feeling, but we all hope that there will never be another war. Does this mean that Memorial Day will disappear when firsthand memories no longer exist? Who will make the effort to continue the tradition?
Maybe the answer came at the end of the service in Lions Park, when the children who had marched in the parade came forward to place flowers and flags on the simulated grave. It is my hope that they will remember this day and want it to continue so they and their children will not forget Memorial Day and those who died to safeguard the freedoms we all enjoy.
