The green of Superior National’s golf course is broken by glimpses of red, white and blue. I look past the first tee and slightly uphill where I glimpse the headstones of a cemetery that lies adjacent to the third hole and mostly out of view. But I can clearly see American flags decorating several headstones.
Of course, I myself taking out golf club and prepare to hit, Memorial Day is just around the corner, and veterans are being honored this way all across the country. Although I’ve researched and written earlier columns about this very topic, some years, and this is one of them, have forgotten about this holiday.
It’s easy enough to do. Caught up in picnic and BBQ plans, I haven’t stopped to remember the meaning of this unofficial start to the summer—to honor the people who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. This sight at the Lutsen cemetery jolts me into doing just that.
For the next few days, I take time to think about Memorial Day and to visit two more cemeteries— Poplar Grove and Maple Hill. At both I’m rewarded with the sight of red, white and blue flags honoring the graves of veterans.
I discover two other ways to commemorate Memorial Day. The first is to attend the local Memorial Day Service on the courthouse lawn at 11:00 a.m. on May 30.
The second is to honor the National Moment of Remembrance Act passed by Congress and signed by the President in 2000, designating a moment of silence for those who’ve died in the service of our country at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day.
While at the cemeteries I also see regular families tending the graves of their loved ones. Remembering the dead and decorating their graves on Memorial Day was a common custom of my childhood, and I don’t know if many people still follow this tradition.can’t. The graves of my parents lie 600 miles away in the prairies of southeastern South Dakota, and I’m only able to visit them sporadically.
But I do have the Internet. So I use Google and soon am looking at a photo of The Schartner Cemetery, my family’s plot. It’s a small cemetery, maybe 2 acres surrounded by soybean fields and some years, cornfields on three sides. A gravel road on the fourth, and meadowlarks trill from the fences.
Not only Mom and Dad but a large number of my relatives rest here. My sister, brother and I visit every few years. I’d like to plant peonies or maybe daffodil bulbs by their graves, but cemetery rules forbid. This Memorial Day, sitting at my computer, I will silently remember my loved ones and symbolically plant daffodil bulbs at my parent’s graves.
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