About Decoration Day: Memorial Day - Lilacs in a Fruit Jar

This morning I poured over the newspaper to see what events are happening here in the Twin Cities on Memorial Day 2011.  So much has changed since I was a child ---duaaaahhhh!

Yes, as a child, I knew it as Decoration Day - the day when we remembered falled soldiers foremost.  One year as a Girl Scout I marched in the parade in Zumbrota, MN stopping on the bridge over the Zumbro River to drop rose petals into the water in memory of those who died at sea before proceeding to the cemetery to put rose petals on the graves of soldiers.  Then somewhere along life's path it became Memorial Day - a time to remember fallen soldiers and deceased family members.

Every year...without fail...tradition held that our first stop was my grandparents farm where the kids gathered lilacs, peonies, lilies of the vally, put them in quart jars full of water and then carefully handed them to family members who would hold them carefully in the car as we drove to the Old Concord Cemetery to place them on graves of our ancestors among the graves of soliders marked by brand new flags placed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  Sometime during this ritual, we'd hear the West Concord High School Marching Band begin to warm up pulling us to the south end of the cemetery for the annual Memorial Day Program of music, prayers and a patriotic speech.

It was a time when my elders would see friends they had not seen since the previous year who returned for this annual event - my relatives came from the Twin Cities, Rochester, Pine Island, Zumbrota and Marion, IA.  Soon the kids were spilling out all (respectfully of course) over the cemetery and had to be rounded up when it was time to return to grampa and gramma's farm for the annual feast of a gazillion salads, "Dodge Center baked beans" (Aunt Jane brought them), deviled eggs and everything rhubard!  If grampa hadn't mowed it also meant us kids could make dandelion necklaces, bracelets, smear "dandelion dust" on ourselves and each other!  Many years these events included four generations of our family.  The yard and driveway were lined with cars - mostly grey or black until the year Grampa Willie bought a brand-spanking new red Ford " just for Gramma Elsie."

So, Memorial Day 2011 is two days away:  I have sent off emails to family members whose father was a prisoner of war in WWII (declared killed in action but returned home a year later after the prisoner of war camp was liberated by the Russians) and died April 19, 2010; my family no longer goes to Old Concord and gas prices are now over $3.75/gallon, so I will plan to stop by on a day when I am down in Rochester to stroll from the graves of my great-grandparents to my mom's and  "pay my respects" remembering them by dropping flower petals on the graves as I go; this year I will attend the Veterans for Peace Memorial Day Service at the Vietnam Memorial south of the Minnesota State Capitol at 9:00 a.m. and then let the day unfold quietly here in the city.

I have no lilacs in my yard but not to be deterred, I know where to get some which I will put in a quart jar and set on my kitchen table - and I will make rhubard/strawberry crisp to share in the days ahead.  Decoration Day/Memorial Day was one of my favorite traditions growing up.  I miss its richness...