Our high school would march three miles

[tavernier]

from downtown Kalamazoo to the cemetery in full uniform on Memorial Day, and I had the pleasure of carrying a glockenspiel every step of the way. Then we headed for the nearest lake for the first swim of the year, regardless if ice chips were still floating on top.. This was 1962, 63 and 64.

These are my Memorial Day memories. I'm sure you have a few...

[Art_from_Ark]

1. I don't have any particular Memorial Day memories

except that summer vacation would always start just before Memorial Day.

[Jenoch]

2. Our band did not march on Memorial Day

but we did play in the bandshell in the oldest city park. I played all of the songs for each of the military branches, plus other patriotic songs. A high school student, usually from the speech club would recite "In Flanders Fields" while somebody else would recite the Gettysburg Address. A small airplane would fly over and drop a wreath into the lake just behind the bandshell.

[tavernier]

3. Thanks!

I'm just recalling my memories of the day ... I thought others might have some to share but I guess Memorial Day has become just another day off. Shame.

[Jenoch]

5. Last Saturday, I took my 82 year old father

to visit the gravesite of my mother, her parents, and sister.

Today I brought him to his parents' graves and the graves of one of his brothers and SIL.

We also went to the cemetery where his two oldest siblings are buried. They died as infants in the spring of 1924 and 1925. One was a girl who lived for two weeks. The other was a boy who lived for a day. My dad had heard stories about these babies but he did not know where they were buried. I did some research and found the cemetery in Minneapolis where they were buried. They are in the infant section of the cemetery without headstones. My father believes we were the first members of his family to visit the cemetery since they were buried.

The other gravesite I found, in the same cemetery, was that of my grandfather's first wife, who died in childbirth. I have cousins who I am e-mailing photos of their maternal grandmother's grave. None of them ever knew where she was buried. Her stone looks as if it fewer than 20 years old and she died in 1923.

My father is getting stones for his brother and sister who lived and quickly died so many years ago.

[tavernier]

6. Loved your touching story.

I too visited the grave of an aunt who died as an infant but because my grandparents were forced out of their country, her grave was neglected for decades. I found it easily enough many years after their death because when I was growing up they often talked about the cemetery on the hillside in their native town.

[Jenoch]

8. I cannot imagine the pain my grandmother went through,

losing babies in consecutive years. She did have three boys who survived, my father being the youngest. His eldest half-brother was killed in a construction accident at 36. His other two brothers both died at age 65, two years apart. I remember when I thought 65 was old. My dad is still going strong at 82.

May I ask from what country it was that your grandparents emigratd?

My dad's parents came from the same village in Ukraine, although my grandfather was 12 years older than my grandmother. My grandpa deserted the Tsars' army in 1910 because he did not wish to kill Bolsheviks using swords and spears. When there was an attack near the Polish border, he rode his horse through town, crossed the border to Poland, and never looked back. It took him two years to get to Amtwerp and on a ship to America. He eventually found his older brother in Detroit and got a railroad job in Minneapolis.

I have some of these stories on video as told by my father. My dad was a newsman so he is also writing these stories. I have to encourage him to keep writing instead of playimg solitaire on his laptop. (Or forwarding e-mails, he's one of those seniors who forward a dozen e-mqils a day.)

[Mr.Bill]

4. I remember going to my grandparents house

and having a BBQ, similar to July 4th. We were a large family and I had lots of cousins to play with, lots of aunts and uncles, etc.

I'm in my 60s now, my grandparents have been gone for decades, now my parents are gone too, as are most of the aunts and uncles. My cousins are thousands of miles away and I seldom see them.

For many years I was rather despondent that I couldn't turn back the clock to those good memories and duplicate those days gone by.

The I realized we still do these things on holidays, except now I'm granddad. The gatherings are a little smaller, but I'm enjoying it just as much as I did in my childhood, just in a different way.

[tavernier]

7. Yup, it's up to us now to

make memories for new generations.

At least we were lucky to have good times to draw on.