Remembering Private Ryan

Remembering Private Ryan-----------------------------------------------------------
I was thinking to myself, what would I have been doing this weekend in May of 1958? The answer that came back to me was that this was pretty much like any other weekend in 1958. Tobacco setting was almost, if not altogether, finished, summer was full on us, the garden was all put out, but few of the vegetables were at a stage of even early harvest, and frying chickens would not be of size for another week or two yet. Watermelons were not yet ripe, and “brought on” melons were not a common commodity in the grocery stores in Carthage.
In 1958 Memorial Day was not a holiday, at least not one that we recognized. Oh we remembered the day and Daddy always bought one of the “buddy poppies” that the VFW guys sold at the red light in town, but it would be twenty years before someone invented the term “Memorial Day Celebrated” and created a three day weekend in its honor. Before that, Memorial day was May 30th and many southern states did not recognize the day as official. It seems the day had originally been a creation of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) which was a veterans organization of the northern army which had fought the civil war. The GAR thought it would be right to commemorate the “last full measure of their devotion” given by those in the Yankee army with a day in which the graves were cleaned and decorated.
For instance, Tennessee celebrated “Decoration Day” on June 3rd which eventually morphed into the first Sunday in June. It is altogether common, even these days, for “decoration day” to be held on the first Sunday in June. For instance, I am speaking at a decoration day in Silver Point Tennessee on June 6th which has extend back for many years.
What did happen on that weekend, on Friday to be exact, is that several unidentified bodies of U. S. soldiers form WWII and Korea were placed at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington Cemetery and it was broadcast on television. Only two weeks before that the Russians had launched Sputnik 3 and Americans were in general, feeling uneasy as one was able to go out and look into the night sky and watch the booster rocket from Sputnik tumble end over end in its orbit above the United States.
A Federal Law which took effect in 1971 changed Memorial Day to be observed as a federal holiday on the last Monday in May, there by creating a three day weekend, and also cheapening the holiday and obscuring its real meaning in the mind of many.
Today many do no know that the flag is to be flown at half staff, it is traditional to decorate the graves of veterans with flags, and it is specifically to honor those KIA (killed in action) or who had died as a result of their wounds received in battle.
The VFW sold the “buddy poppies” in tribute to the poem that achieved note in World War I In Flanders Fields.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Enjoy the long weekend, celebrate the start of summer, renew your family relationships, but don’t fail to remember folks like my friend PFC Frank Ryan, a young soldier from West Virginia who wore his Baptist Sunday school metals on the breast of his uniform and left a young widow and twins when he failed to return from his first mission in Vietnam. Freedom is indeed not free, but purchased with a price.

Have a blessed day, Bob