Cemetery

There is something about Memorial Day that takes me back to a simpler time. It might be that the cemetery where we have our service that day is right across the road from where I grew up. I remember the cars lining the road on Memorial Day, and hearing the band playing Star Spangled Banner from my place on the limb of the big oak tree in our back yard where I'd sit and think.

Our Memorial Day service always gives me pause to think more about the sacrifice of all those who gave their life so that we could be free. It is emotional and you can't help but have a heart of gratitude. It is thoughtful and beautiful.

A day or so before I will first visit our local flower shop that the parents of an old high school friend owns, and I will buy flowers for my mom, dad, and grandparents. Then it's off to the cemetery to place them. I can look down over the hill and there's where I used to play tag, hopscotch, horseshoes, and other games with my siblings. 

Generally I forget to take the tags off of the flowers. How rude! Do you think Mom and Dad would care? I don't think so either. But I did remember to take them off this time. Just in case. 

Bubbles, Thoughts?

Yea. Can I take this cone of shame off yet?

 

Time Capsule Kind Of Day

Well, we did not make it to the cemetery today for the Memorial Day service *Insert a sad face here* So I had to reminisce....
Another expert of Growing Old With Gracie...

MEMORIAL DAY

REWIND

Memorial Day means that cars will line Cemetery Road.  It’s a beautiful, clear and warm spring day and I am awake early and I watch out the window as more and more cars park above our house  and up the road as far as the eye can see.  I stretch.  If a thought bubble were to be above my head it would read, “I am so happy!” Today marks the beginning of a summer vacation -- from school-- that will last forever (in my eight-year-old mind, that is).  The anxieties of school will disappear for a time and I will be playing outside, climbing trees, sleeping in, and doing whatever I want, whenever I want.  No rules apply for summer.  Leaving the house in the morning and not coming home till pitch dark is acceptable.  I have no plans for today.  My brother is awake early too, and he is sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes.  If I do not speak to him he will not speak to me, therefore we will have no reason to fight with one another. 

The wringer washer hums and swishes back and forth, clothes, suds and water.  It rests in the middle of the kitchen floor where mom has pulled it from the corner for wash day.  As I walk outside the screen door slams behind me and I see Mom  hanging clothes on the line.  Her cotton dress catches a breeze, and beats against her legs.  The smell of lilacs, the warm air, the green, full lush trees, and the band that can now be heard in a distance just up over the hill for Eckhart’s Memorial Day service, all indicate that summer starts now.  I breath in deep the smell of the best day of the year.   It’s a lazy and kind day on Cemetery Road.  One I would store in a time capsule and release at a future time if it were possible.  I love today.

 PLAYBACK

One of the memes on facebook asks, Who tells their dog they’ll be back when leaving to go somewhere?  I raise my hand. 

“We’ll be back,” I tell Gracie.

It’s early.  Wait.  You don’t usually leave the house this early, is there a problem?  Should I worry?  Can I go with?  Stop!  You are destroying my habitual lazy morning of laying on the couch with my people routine!

Gracie looks confused as Gary and I scurry out the door shutting her out and heading up the road to the cemetery.  Memorial Day remains a fond memory in my heart and once again I have convinced my husband to accompany me to the service just ten minutes away.  

We stop at Mom and Dad’s gravesite just up over the hill from where we used to watch the activities from our home.  I can see our house from where I stand.   I survey the hill, the one where the drunken man used to fall into the berry bushes and Mom would instill in us fear, “Don’t go outside! Old Man Tucker is drunk out there!”  We’d watch him take a swig from his bottle, swaying as he walked and eventually fell into the thick weeds along the side of the road.  We were taught to fear him, though he was quite harmless.  I smile, remembering some of Mom’s silly, old fashioned ways and think she’d never survive in this politically correct time of life now.   It’s peaceful here.  The grass has been mowed nicely and the scent and feel of spring fills the air. 

“I wish I would have stopped and got Mom and Dad some flowers,” I say.  Maybe next year.  I don't really believe she would even know.  But, what if?  “Sorry, Mom and Dad,” I say, just in case.  They would understand.  Neither of them were  into material things.  It would be more like… “Well, you visited and that’s all that matters.” I imagine that Mom can see me there, looking down upon her grave and then turning my glance to our house over the hill.  Somehow the two seem to go together.  Mom, Dad and our house.  Right there in panoramic view where they all belong.  

“We better get going,” Gary says.  We walk through the cemetery to where the service is held and I throw a blanket onto the ground. There’s a band, some singing, a message and a blessed ambiance that seems to flow through my veins like the blood of life.   Here in the cemetery is peace.  The past sleeps here.  The present savors here.  The future rests here.   

I watch an ant march completely around the border of my blanket as if he is on a mission to complete a lap, not turning back nor wavering.  Staying the course and marching forward.  Life is like that, I think.  We must never stray far from the beaten path.  We must remember where we came from and where we are going.  March! March!  March!  

It’s about time you guys are home!  Sorry I had to rip open your coffee filters and scatter them throughout the living room… but  a voice in my head said, go for it! You needed to be taught a lesson.

The Passing of Years

Through the tunnel of time my thought process has changed.  A lot. There are things I have learned while worming my way through that tunnel...  things that have changed my perspective.  I think differently than I did as a child.  Heck, I don't even think the same today as I did yesterday.  We learn as we go along.  Every day can teach you something to grow you as a person.  And if you examine yourself daily, you can learn from your own mistakes which can grow you even more!

Probably the hardest life lesson for me was the disappointment in people who blatantly, repeatedly, selfishly and coldly hurt others.  The world is filled with good and evil.  You will know them by their fruits (not their fake actions.  just sayin'  ... yes, I have become largely skeptical when it comes to people).  

But I was one of the lucky ones as a child and I experienced the love of both of my parents, many siblings, and a dirt poor day to day existence as Mom and Dad worked feverishly to make ends meet and to provide for all seven of us kids.  They were both hard workers and kind-hearted people.  I miss them terribly!  

Memorial Day, 2017 was a perfect day for me.  Eckhart Cemetery is just above the house where I grew up.   Memorial Day pasts haunt me (in a good way) each time I attend the services at that cemetery above our old house.  I reminisce of those warm spring days of old when cars lined the road above our home and a brood of gangly kids stood outside our door watching the goings on.

Memorial Day for me then was more of a celebration of the start of summer vacation.  I did not think beyond that, for my mind was that of a child.

I now look down from the cemetery's hill upon the other smaller cemetery beside our house, and I see things as they are.

Still though, when I visit the flourishing trees and green hillsides of my youth, I recollect an innocent little girl with stringy brown hair and crooked bangs, bubbling with excitement for summer's start, and I'm glad that memory is still with me.

For in that memory is an innocence.  A time of trust that I will never know again.

The sixty-two year old me has obligation and duty.  My skeptical self does not trust easily but the dreamer in me is not ready yet to give up on memories past.  

But I know that Memorial Day is a day to remember the country's people who died while serving in the armed forces.   And I am so very grateful.

God bless the USA

Miss you, Dad

Forbidden

I have the most wonderful #1 son with the most awesome taste in flowers.  Maybe he doesn't even realize how he picks just the right gift for me when it comes to birthdays, holidays etc.  But he does!  My Mother's day flowers have flourished and just keep getting more and more beautiful.  

And speaking of children...  Mama Robin picked just the right place to house her nest of babies this year.  Safe and secure under our deck they waited ...  as mama returned over and over again with worms and such to feed their cute little beaks.

Gracie was quite curious about the goings on under there and tried feverishly to unveil the mystery beneath the deck.  When I caught her standing on her hind legs and sniffing out the nest I thought it best to put a stop to her shenanigans and G and I put up barriers to keep her out from under there.  Oh the torment it must have been to be sniffing through that lattice and know the forbidden was just sniffs away.

Not funny.

The babies grew quickly.  Soon mama had them out and about, teaching them to fly on their own.

I couldn't help but wonder, will Mama worry for her babies much like us humans tend to do, now that they are on their own?

Spring is blossoming into vibrant color, finally.  Our hydrangeas are budding and showing hope for a flourishing summer of beautiful flowers.  Daisy's are plentiful and I can't help but think of my sister when I behold their beauty.  Daisy's were her favorite.  Oh how I miss her!

Our seasonal camp site is coming along.  Not quite ready for overnight just yet... but soon.

Our neighbors look to be real characters.

They seem very nice, though.  Really.

A visit to the country store at camp and I was able to purchase my very first comfort food for the freezer.  You never know when you might need a scoop or two of butter pecan, right?

Yesterday was Memorial Day and so after an awesome service at the cemetery we took the girls to camp to check it out.

They were impressed.  Mostly with the playground.

No snakes.  Only one spider.  A minor bug bite.  It was a good day!

Respect

I threw some red, white and blue onto the table and I quick went to see the Colonel...

He provided me with a picnic lunch of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, cole slaw, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and biscuits. 

We had Twinkies for dessert.

There was laughter...

Lots of kisses....

And some much needed play...

Eventually a gentle rain came leaving wet grass and cooler temperatures.

The hot day didn't affect those inside as the cool of the AC kept them comfortable while they watched Guardian's of the Galaxy in 3-D and surround sound.

A confused Gracie couldn't decide whether she wanted inside where there was lots of original recipe fried chicken or outside where there was more of the same.  Keeping up became tiring for the old girl.

We celebrate by bringing family together to create memories for our kid's tomorrows. 

 But Memorial Day is so much more than that.  

It's a day to honor and remember our veterans and troops with respect and much gratitude.

Wishing everyone a memorable, safe, blessed Memorial Day.  

Remember

I grew up on a quiet street, Cemetery Road.   To me, Memorial Day meant that school had come to an end for the year and the beginning of a summer that would last forever was about to ensue.

I'm on the far right

Memorial Day meant heavy traffic on our back road and a cemetery thick with visitors, paying their respect to lost loved ones.  Flowers.  Guns.  Ceremony.  Lush green trees and the beginning of idle days.

Mom, my sister Angie, and me kneeling in the back.

Nothing to do but play baseball with the neighbors, climb trees, and picnick and swimming at Swaugars Dam at New Germany State Park.   A heart bursting with happiness.   No worries. 

My sister Rita, my cousin Gail...  and that's me on the right...

Memorial Day still stirs these fond memories for me…. But now, as an adult, I see the core of what we celebrate and I have the utmost admiration in my heart for our brave men and women who sacrificed their lives to make our country a better place. 

one thing was for sure... I loved my pets!  Gizmo and me.

Yogi and me

Jinxi and me

I hope everyone is having a peaceful Memorial Day today…  

Summer

Are you enjoying the long weekend?  

Memorial Day is Monday.  

And Summer will be here before you know it.  

Summer