A quick gallery from yesterday's Memorial Day parade here in my new home town. It took just short of an hour for it all to pass by - the gallery is to give a flavor of the event.
I found the whole experience a bit off-putting. Memorial Day grew out of somewhat organized moves by the Grand Army of the Republic (i.e., the Union Army) to recognize the dead from the failed Southern insurrection. The South would have none of it, but organized their own separate recognition for dead Confederate soldiers. Eventually pretty much everybody agreed that a national holiday for the purpose of remembering and commemorating the dead from all of the country's wars would be appropriate. My family tradition was to go on Memorial Day to put flags and flowers on the graves of family members who had died in military service, which is the original way the holiday was celebrated. Somehow when I wasn't looking the whole thing has morphed out of all recognition, with concerts on the National Mall and politicians mouthing platitudes about those who serve and parades with people in funny hats and collectable old cars. What was originally Armistice Day (end of WWI) and morphed into Veterans Day in this country is a time for honoring all those who serve; isn't that enough? Do we have to intrude on this day of remembrance for those who died? Philosophical mutterings aside, the parade was a decent representation of hundreds of small-town parades put on for a variety of reasons (or for no reason at all) throughout the country throughout the year. I hope this gallery gives a bit of the flavor of the event . . . http://photos.stanhalpin.com/p463991366 stan -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
