I Love a Parade!

(sigh) I know ya'll. I. KNOW. I'm sorry. I'm doing my best. I try to remember that in December I posted every day until Christmas. December is so much easier than May/June. I might need to nap the first weekend after school gets out. The whole weekend. YES. That tired.

I have a special place in my heart for Memorial Day. Some of it stems from having my birthday around the same time (this year it was actually on the day, yesterday. Thank you, it was nice.).. some of it, trivially so.. stems from the parade and the day off, and part of it has to do with never really observing it until we moved here.


See, our town, they go all out for stuff. We don't just celebrate Halloween, we have a costume parade down the street, around the common and back to school. At Christmas time we have a town celebration on the common. For Memorial Day, we have a parade, that starts at school, marches to the common for a ceremony honoring the fallen, and those who are serving, then it continues over to the pond where they do a ceremony for those lost at sea, it continues over to the old cemetery and then comes back down past my house and down the street to school.

The band comes from the regional HS. They march in 4 parades on Memorial Day. I admire that perseverance. It's not a day off for them. It's a day to be hot and uncomfortable in those band uniforms, and use their talents to honor those gone on before then. Usually the Girl Scouts get to march and be involved, and for some reason this year they weren't asked. It was nice nonetheless. There's not a lot of fan fare. Some readings get read, the local minister and/or priest say a few words (ok, this year Ned Flanders spoke and was a bit winded. Remind me on another day to tell you how he's leaving), a wreath gets laid, names are read and time marches on.

For me, it brings not only a pause and reflection on those who have served before me, and continue to do so now.. but a sense of belonging. A strong feeling of community.

Home.