Community Chat

[athenian]

I will go on Memorial Day to leave flowers for grandmother and grandfather, aunt and uncle and greats.  Their part of the cementery is pretty deserted now, but they do put flags on all the veteran's graves.  Only three of us left to do this.

[MaggieMack]

@Perkup, please thank your DH for his service from me. He has seen much in his years! My dad passed three years ago, he would be 96 now, the stories he could tell about his service! God bless you both.

[RedHeadedWench]

My husband and I are going in the morning to our local National Cemetery and placing flags on the graves.

He will be placing flags, I will be handing them out. I can't do the placing anymore with my wheelchair...kinda tough. But I can help!

[Plaid Pants2]

I think that today's generation and younger, don't cling to the past like their elders do.

Maybe that's a good thing, or maybe it isn't, I don't know, but that's how I see it.

[MaggieMack]

I saw a clip on tv this morning about the flags being placed yesterday n the 230,000 graves at Arlington. The Old Regiment is charged with this, and after placing each flag, they stop and salute. What a wonderful tradition. It is called Flags In if anyone is interested in googling it. May this tradition never be forgotten, as those who gave their lives for our freedom never will be.

[GCR18]

I can remember going to the cemetery with my father and grandmother.  When she passed, my father would take us.  He's now there.  I live far from there now.  It brings back memories of lost traditions.

[islandgrrl]

The cemetery where my father is buried (a vet of Korea and Vietnam) has a very large veterans' section and it is a gorgeous place to be on Memorial Day.  Flags, flowers and lots of families.  I always feel a bittersweet mixture of pride and sadness (my father died relatively young).  We were a military family for over 20 years.  And given how many times we moved when I was a kid, I feel that my mother, two brothers and I served our country too! 

[Mominohio]

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@goldensrbest wrote:

I decorated my sons,and husbands graves yesterday.

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@goldensrbest

I'm sorry you had to do that. When I think of decorating graves, I think of grandparents, great grandparents and before. It is very sad to have to decorate the graves of those in our own generation, and our children. Hugs to you.

[Allegheny]

We tended and planted at the graves of DH's parents and grandparents last week.  

He and his four siblings usually takes turns doing so, but his three older sisters are no longer capable and his brother was out of state.  My DH really can't do it himself (bad knee), so I did the weeding and planting.  Sadly when we and his brother & SIL are no longer able to do so, it won't be done even though there are five adult grandchildren locally.

My parents were cremated and my brother and I spread their ashes at places they loved.  My grandparents chose entombment in a community mausoleum

[Mominohio]

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@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

I think that today's generation and younger, don't cling to the past like their elders do.

Maybe that's a good thing, or maybe it isn't, I don't know, but that's how I see it.

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@Plaid Pants2 I think you are right, many not only don't cling to the past, they aren't even well schooled on it.

I think there is 'clinging' to the past, then there is knowing history, honoring, respecting, and learning from it. 

I've never found remembering the past, loving it and being interested in it to be a bad thing, but I know a lot of people don't believe in ever looking back. 

If we weren't meant to look back, we'd never have been given the gift of memory. Doing so doesn't have to in any way stop us from moving toward the future. Both are good things.