I’ll get on my soap box for a bit. At the store where I handed out Buddy Poppies, there was a sign on the door saying wine was on sale in memory of heroes. Huh? Now I like that store and they treat VFW very well allowing us to hand out Poppies twice a year at two of their locations. However, I puzzled over that sign for two days. Somehow, Memorial Day has simply become a BBQ day for far too many Americans. My XO from Vietnam, Lt. M, and I still exchange emails now and then. Typically, it is Veterans Day, 4th of July, Memorial Day, or a day in December that no one would pay any particular attention to other than those who were there, On that particular day in 1968, we lost a number of our mutual friends. So when Lt. M sends me an email saying he hopes my Memorial Day was OK, I know exactly what he is talking about and it is not about the wine on sale or the BBQ. We all have those particular days that pass and we stop and think about an event that happened on that day many years ago and, in doing so, we keep alive those who have gone before us. Memorial Day is the day that combines all those “particular days” and when the Lt. and I are long gone and no one thinks twice about that day in December 1968, hopefully those attending some future Memorial Day ceremony will think about those young men, not in the abstract, but as individuals who gave the rest of their lives in defense of our Country.
