Some would say that subtle changes are the best ones. It’s no secret that human beings like predictability. Visit the grocery store and discover that “they moved” where certain things are. Or discover that the store has changed its hours. When did that happen?

For some reason, this year, I’ve been more keenly aware of the changes taking place with the way we celebrate Memorial Day. The irony doesn’t escape me that I’m remembering how we used to celebrate this day by remembering military personnel who died serving our country.

When I was a young child, Memorial Day was a big deal. Preparations started long before the day itself. I accompanied my Dad on multiple trips to the cemetery, making graves “look good.” We also would retrieve heavy rifles stored at the then-legion hall for some spit and polish in anticipation of the big parade that everyone in town attended. Mom spent a lot of time fussing with Dad’s dress blues. I got to wear my very own sailor’s cap on the day itself.

I don’t remember any cookouts or family picnics, although I’m sure we had them. One of my favorite photos of Dad is him in full uniform kneeling in a pasture on my uncle’s father’s farm. I think he stayed in uniform most of the day—at least that’s the way I remember it. Dad always seemed to stand a little taller and straighter on Memorial Day. I tried to be like him.

The overriding word for that day was “pride.” at seven years old, I didn’t fully understand it, but I felt it.

Seventy years later, I wonder what today’s seven-year-olds are thinking and feeling.

I listened to a George Patton speech (not George C. Scott!) last night. He described the trail of the Third Army and Eighth Air Force as “marked by forty thousand white crosses, forty thousand dead Americans.” That mattered. He cared about them.

Memorial Day does not celebrate those deaths. It does not celebrate war. It is perhaps more accurately a celebration of human potential and of human commitment.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

George S. Patton

When did it become difficult to find a parade to watch on this special day? When did we stop visiting the cemetery to place flowers and straighten flags?

The least we can do today is stand a little taller and straighter.

Walter Bruce Boomsma, Sr.
S1 USNR
World War II
September 29, 1926 – June 24, 1954