Memorial Day and a Very Important PS
Early Monday morning I gave a concerned look at Katie and wondered why she was not ready for school yet. I knew she had off, but wanted to jack her chain a bit. She did not fall for it, and looking at me with that "child knowing everything and parent knowing nothing look," she promptly told me it was Memorial Day, and she had no school.
I was surprised she even knew it was Memorial Day, but then asked her what that meant. Well, she didn't know, so then I told her how after the American Civil War, Southern women saw that many Confederate and Union soldiers who were killed in the fighting, did not have marked graves. They felt sorry for them, so far from home, and no one to properly take care of their grave, let alone mark it. It started as a tradition and spread till eventually it caught on across the nation, It was originally called Decoration Day, and finally the President of the United States declared the last Monday of May as Memorial Day.
I told her about Punchbowl and how I saw on the news that the Boy Scouts were out there placing an American Flag at each Veterans' grave. One Boy Scout who was interviewed, placed 200 flags himself, and in all 35,000 small American Flags were put in the ground next to each grave marker.
She expressed an interest to visit it, even though she initially said, "Dead people are bad and scary, and would not want to see all the decaying bodies." I explained that they were not bad people, and asked if she thought her Grandparents, who she loved so much were bad people. She really did not mean "bad" as being terrible mean people. I told her the Veterans were buried under the ground and covered with nice grass, and the cemetery had lots of trees, bushes, and flowers. I asked her if she was ever at a cemetery, and she replied, "No." She actually had, but did not remember being at the cemetery when her Grandparents died.
So, we headed out on the Windward coastal ride, took our time, and visited, the Federal VA Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl. There were thousands of American Flags, all in neat rows, up and down the slopes of the dormant volcano overlooking Honolulu...quite a sight. As we drove down one lane I noticed an American Flag that had blown over, stopped the jeep, got out, and up righted it, got back in and continued on. Then we saw there were more fallen over, I stopped again, and eventually Linda and Katie joined me in up righting more flags, and flower pots, that had blown over. I was real proud of both of them.
We visited the immense monument depicting the Battle of the Pacific, and let Katie go at her own pace, asking questions and wanting to "touch" the mosaic maps of the different campaigns and battles. I think she wanted to touch them just because they were fenced off.
Anyway we got back home about 1800, had Mahi Mahi on the grill and ate outside with the tiki torches going...really nice and relaxing.
Semper Fi,
and God Bless America!!!
Love,
Dad/Grandpa/Ron/Woz
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Very nicely written and done, Ron. I am sure your daughter will remember your efforts on placing the flags at the Punch Bowl WW II Cemetary.
My Great Uncle Walter Anderson, who was killed at Kwajalein in WW II, is buried at the Punch Bowl.
So on behalf of him and our family, we thank you.
Semper Fi
Craig Hullinger