The old
traded their ‘dog tag numbers’ from the war.
Little children, far removed from that time, waved flags, tried to hold
them up, sometimes batted at each other with their flags, but gently.
The weather
was so light, so shiny and blue-skied, the green of the trees so verdant. Our favorite politicians gave speeches. A tenor
sang America the Beautiful and we
tried to join in, some remembered words better than others.
It was the
biggest crowd I’ve seen for Memorial Day in all the years I’ve gone, seems many
families playing on the slides and swings on the other side of the park,
decided to come over and join. It was
all ages, all colors.
The firemen were
there to show their truck and talk to the kids and to walk with us over to
another monument in the park for a young firefighter from the neighborhood felled by his job several years
ago now.
We honored
our dead, our veterans, our current military, the firemen and police assisting
us this day and the young fireman with the beautiful face who was killed, his
mother there with us this morning.
Sometimes all
we can do is join together, to give thanks, to do the right thing, to be
congenial to one another, to pay our respects, to stand in attendance.
Mary Pat Kane for WISPS
Memorial Day, 2015
with thanks to the D'Amico family
