Saturday, May 24, 2014

Memorial Day



www.laurirobinson.blogspot.com

For many, this weekend marks the beginning of summer. Formerly known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day is a Federal Holiday to remember the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It originated after the Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who lost their lives. By the 20th century, Memorial Day evolved into honoring all Americans who have perished while serving in the military. 

Harlequin Sale
This picture is of either Memorial Day or Fourth of July in Ortonville, Minnesota in 1880.  I chose it because we go to Ortonville every Fourth of July. My brother has a cabin there and many of the buildings in this picture are still standing. 

For Memorial Day we travel north, to the Canadian Border where we will decorate family graves. It promises to be a lovely weekend and we are looking forward to a bit of down time completely ‘off the grid’. We don’t even have cell service at our property. 

In honor of Memorial Day, Harlequin has a sale on all military hero books. The Major’s Wife is part of this sale. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

1 comment:

  1. There's been a long history of who first celebrated Memorial Day. I've heard everything from the Civil War to...whatever. So, what you say is true..we just don't know and even if one group or place can pretty much nail it down, others will deny it's true. Weird, isn't it.
    The first memory of Memorial Day was in grade school out in West Texas. It was called Decoration Day and if we had a nickel, we could buy a red crepe paper poppy to wear pinned to our clothes. I love those paper poppies.
    The last time I saw this practice was several years ago when we came upon a father and young son, dressed in their Boy Scout uniforms, selling the red poppies. Everyone passed them by--how many people today know the story behind those poppies? But I stopped and gave the boy a dollar for a red poppy we once paid a nickel for. My husband said, what are you going to do with that?
    Wear it, I said. I wanted to say, are you crazy? I'm pinning it to my shirt!

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