298 Names

Last year, I wrote all about Memorial Day - it's origins and who the holiday celebrated.  My Blog started as follows:

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday which occurs every year on the final Monday of May. Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

We forget why we have the day off - it's not to picnic, to party, or to declare the unofficial start of summer.  It's to remember. 

Sure my weekend is full of yard work, but this morning, while I was doing my FAVORITE thing that I don't get to do much of anymore and that is read the paper with a cup of coffee in the yard.  I read one page in the Morning Call that made we remember what this day is all about and that was 298 names of those who have died since 2003 as a result of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from Pennsylvania.  Some of those names are right from towns around us, Whitehall, Bethlehem, Allentown, Emmaus, etc.

298 Names.

It made me tear up, it made remember and it made me say a prayer for their friends and family who have suffered so great of a loss. 

Today the Catasauqua American Legion Post 215 makes sure we remember with Services as Fairview Cemetery at 10 AM.  The throwing of a wreath from the Pine Street Bridge at 10:15 AM.  A ceremony at 10:30 AM at the North Catty Monument at 10:30 AM. A ceremony at St. Mary's Cemetery at 10:45AM and then back to the Legion for a dedication at 11:00 AM.

So today, between the burgers, hot dogs, or like me - the planting of the tomato plants.  Take a moment.  Take a moment to remember those who have died while fighting while serving proudly the United States of America remember the
proud men and women of the Armed Forces. 

Take moment to remember 298 names. 

Take a moment........and that's Another day in Catasauqua.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War.



Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971).



Many Americans today have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day.

This I did not know - but the proper flag etiquette for Memorial day is that the flag is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day. The half-staff position remembers the more than one million men and women who gave their lives in service of their country (and who still are). At noon their memory is raised by the living, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all.

While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades,(I believe the American Legion in Catty still has a tradition that they still do) many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

Something else I did not know - To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in December of 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to Taps.

Since 1987, Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye a World War II veteran, has repeatedly introduced measures to return Memorial Day to its traditional date. Why, because Memorial Day is more that a 3 day picnic party weekend, it's not those special doorbuster specials at Kohl's, it is about those who lost their lives fighting for ours. So this Memorial Day, Monday May 30, let's try to remember to take that moment at 3:00 PM, I know I will.

and that's.....another day in Catasauqua