Memorial Day, 2012

I promised myself I wouldn't do it.  This year I'd be strong.  I'd go out in my front yard and watch the parade and not cry.

I didn't listen to me.

I don't know what it is, but every year since I moved here I've cried during the Memorial Day parade.


I think the first year it was a combination of being in my new house and remembering when I used to be in the parade, part of the marching band from high school.

Last year it was probably due to having been in a car accident shortly before Memorial Day, and still being in a good deal of pain and shook up about it.

This year...who knows?

It's not all-out bawling.  I just get choked up as the parade nears.  But I still get pictures and wave as they go by.  I haven't followed them to the cemetery - the first year I'd only just woken up and was still in my jammies, last year I hurt too much, and this year I had to go find Arwen - she was hiding in the top drawer of my dresser, where she'd fled to when the first of the fire truck sirens went off.

Here's the parade as it crosses Highway 45 and comes down my road

And here's a shot of the size of the parade, taken from my front yard

The American Legion Post 377; they were right behind the color guard

One of the fire trucks of the Elcho Volunteer Fire Department

Ambulance and cold-water rescue trailer of Elcho VFD

The parade crosses Highway 45 and comes down Forest Road to the Summit Lake Lakeside Cemetery.  After the ceremony there is a 21-gun salute, "Taps" is played, then the band loads on the bus and heads back to Elcho; they start in town and march down the highway and up the hill to the cemetery in Elcho.  Back when I was in school we had wool uniforms, and we were dying by the time we got to the Elcho cemetery.  It was invariably 75 degrees (F) or warmer every year.  Nothing like marching and standing around in wool uniforms for a couple hours!

Now the band wears purple polo shirts and black pants.  Much more sensible, but it kind of lacks the pizazz of the old uniforms - we had ruffled shirts (Well, a shirt front that was attached to our jackets and zipped up the middle), purple jackets and pants with yellow stripes, yellow cummerbunds and white hats with a snap brim.

The only ones in uniform are the servicemen and women who take part in the parade and ceremony.

This shot of the cemetery was taken earlier this month; I'll stop by later this afternoon and get pictures of the headstones with the flowers and flags on them. 

Summit Lake Lakeside Cemetery, viewed from the service road