Decoration Day

That's what "Memorial Day" used to be called when we were kids. H and I both remember that clearly - and it was always on May 30, not this last monday of May business that makes a convenient 3 day weekend to begin "summer". (Not here in the PNW - that would be July 5!) We would go to the cemetery to decorate the family graves - my Mom and my aunts did that while us cousins ran around and fed the swans in the pond. No one in our family at that time had died in any war. ??? So I went to Wikipedia to see how it all began and how it has gotten changed. .... The first 'Decoration day" was May 1, 1865 in Charleston South Carolina, by African Americans recently freed from slavery, decorating graves of Union soldiers who had been prisoners of war in Charleston. The sheer number of dead both Union and Confederate from the civil war caused burial and memorialization to take on new significance. In 1868 the date was made national and changed to May 30 and spoken of as "Memorial day" after 1882 - but this was not a common practice until after WW II and not official til 1967!! (Hence our parents name for it...a sign of our age for sure!) It grew to memorialize all veterans of all wars... and then just more general expressions of memory for family members who had died. And in 1968 the "Uniform Holidays Bill" moved special days to monday so the 3 day weekend could be "enjoyed." This law took effect in 1971. There is some movement by Veterans associations and others to put it back to May 30 to remember what it's all about.
Besides visiting the cemetery, there were always parades.

So, the photo? It's the only grave, (besides a bird) that I could think of to decorate, as tradition. And I didn't think the American flag was too appropriate here in Canada for this Canadian raccoon. 2 years ago, H and I brought the 3 grandchildren up with us for "camp" and at the top of the wharf, a baby raccoon had gotten tangled in a crab trap that was left out and died. (To be perfectly honest, I didn't mind reducing the raccoon population by one) So we had to have a burial and a funeral. And they made markers. And they had just started going out by themselves on the island with walkie talkies. We loved it when they called to tell us they were at the grave , "praying" ! The nootka roses are out now and the daisies are just beginning to bloom - so I think it looks pretty (what do yo think, Hiho?)

My Dad taught me to drive in our cemetery and we taught our boys. But I don't plan to be in one. My thoughts about them have changed.

I hope anyone in the US who celebrated today had a good day!