Memorial Day Memories

When I was a kid, in the 1950's, Memorial Day meant a day spent at the cemetery, placing flowers on the graves of relatives and soldiers killed in WWII. We didn't think of flowers from a florist (or worse, plastic bouquets made in Taiwan), we picked what we had blooming in the yard and put it in a jar by the headstone.

Walking in my garden this morning, I was taken back to my childhood when I saw the peonies and iris at their peak, just as they were when we'd pick them to take to the cemetery on Memorial Day.

Here I go to our oldest and smallest cemetry that is taken care of my the families and on MD I place iris on all the graves and many of the family has welcomed them and wondered where I got them and I said the back yard...which commerical bed is part of back yard. I do not tell them that I a grower. I just want them to know that other people care that many of those in there died in or after a war fighting for me and my family and all of us. I want them to know how thankful I am to them.

D

We carry on the tradition here. We have two cemetaries, one for my family and one for my husbands. Mine is a private one, and his is a small one that still allows flowers.

My Mother In Law, a wonderful woman, loved hanging baskets. So the graves in that cemetary have hooks, and we bring over hanging baskets. It is close by, so I go there twice a week and water. I put the hanging baskets there about a week ahead of Memorial Day.

My family, Mom loved geraniums, so she gets a geranium. The rest of the family get large canning jars filled with irises and lilacs, just like they used to when I was a kid. That cemetary is farther away, but I go there a few times a year to take fresh flowers and talk to my Aunt Helen, who inspired the love of lilacs and irises in me. I always go there on Memorial Day itself.

Wonderful memories as none of our families are here, mine and his all in CA and I hope that someone does it for them.

D

I had never thought about it but when I was a kid back in Kansas Memorial Day was kind of the garden holiday. We did the same thing every year and much of the food and flowers came from the garden. My grandfather saved his coffee cans all year and we would wrap them in aluminum foil, fill them with peonies & iris, and drive around putting them on graves. Some of the adults would always have too much to drink and there was always the same dinner of barbecued brisket, wilted lettuce, and strawberry shortcake. What a nice memory! I don't think you could do this in Oklahoma as the peonies and iris are done and the daylily have yet to start and I had to work today anyway. :(

Oh my, what a lovely, homey sounding way to spend a holiday Gregpap. Brisket, wilted lettuce, and strawberry shortcake are all among my favorite foods in the world.

Our families are buried in NY & IL. the town here does a parade with several stops & the HS marching band participates.

Great memories. I've never had wilted lettuce. It's good?

I don't put flowers on others graves, but do take extra water each time I go to water others pots.

Actually, I was kid back when this was a big holiday for my family and I never ate the wilted lettuce. It made the whole house stink but I would like to give it a try now. All of the dishes they made where probably not what you are thinking. The brisket came with a very bold home made sauce and the shortcake was more like a strawberry pie with the crust being the only thing that was cooked and you dumped fresh cream over it. I am betting they where old family recipes and now I am getting hungry!

But everyone remembers Memorial Day as a family holiday... at our house it was always the first picnic of summer - it felt so good to spread a blanket and eat outside and feel the warm sunshine on your face. Fried chicken, potato salad and chocolate cake with lemonade - YUMMM.

Greetings from a working holiday in New Zealand where it’s the beginning of winter. I had to leave the last of my TB blooms behind in Nashville, but I understand the rain pretty much trashed them.

I remember getting the Old Zion Cemetery in PA ready a few days before the Memorial Day church service with my grandparents. I would fill the mason jars from the creek for my grandmother. Her youngest daughter’s grave was covered with blooming roses, geraniums, and anything else that was blooming.

I also remember wilted lettuce, which I didn’t like. All I remember is the crumpled bacon on it and the smell of the hot vinegar poured onto it. My favorite was my grandma’s fresh lettuce with sweetened cream (fresh from the cow) poured on top (having farming grandparents was the best !)