Memorial Day 2016

Grandpa Hunter's best friend

Holden's only WWII loss. He's buried in Luxembourg

Dad's older sister, Margaret, who died as an infant.

Nicolaus and Sidney Teeples grave

I drove mom and dad to their annual pilgrimage to Holden today. They like to take flowers to the graves. I learned something interesting about Memorial Day. It began after the Civil War and was called Decoration Day in the north. It was a day to decorate graves of perished union soldiers. Later the US combined the north and south's memorial days into one: Memorial Day on May 30, a day when flowers are in full bloom. It was later changed to be the last Monday in May to create a 3-day weekend. Many lament that changing the day to a Monday instead of the set date took away meaning from the holiday. I know that from my personal experience it was just the last school holiday before summer vacation. Then we moved to Utah and learned that it was a "thing." People here decorate graves, whether of war heroes or not. Every cemetery is covered with flowers and flags. It's quite beautiful.

We drove down after church and left flowers and leis. Dad told us stories about those buried there. We had one lei left and he had me put it on the grave of my grandpa Hunter's best friend and his wife. We also saw the grave of the ONLY soldier from Holden who died in WWII. He was a young doctor who left a wife and 2 children. From the headstone, it appears that his widow never remarried. Dad told me that about 100 men from Holden, a small town of about 500 people, served in WWII. There were no men from the ages of 18-40 in town. I asked what the women did. He said they farmed. They must have needed help from the men over 40. My grandpa Hunter was 42, so he must have helped women with their farming needs. Dad said Holden only lost 1 man in WWI, 1 in WWII, 1 in Korea, and 1 in Vietnam.

Dad directing traffic

Dad at the corral

"That's mom's old chest freezer!"

Me at the site of our next family reunion

We then went to the hog ranch, acreage south of town that Jon and dad bought from grandpa Hunter. We drove down a road with lots of weeds. Mom and I were scared we would high center, but we didn't. We saw the old corral and found an old freezer that used to be my grandma's. We also saw old farm equipment. We had a nice day.