After reading that I'm a liittle depressed because it's true....Many Americans don't know the reason for Memorial Day anymore and don't think of it as anything other than the first big "3-day holiday" of Summer. The newspaper is full of sales advertisments for patio furniture & barbeque grills. I don't want to get too pious here, because there were years in mid-life that I did it myself. It took reading Brokaw's book, The Greatest Generation to bring me back to my senses and remember what Memorial Day is really about. I too believe that it was a mistake to change the date in order to make it a 3-day weekend. As secular as our society is (sadly) becoming it's only a matter of time before Christmas Day will no longer be December 25th, but be celebrated on the last Friday in December, or something equally as disrespectful. Last year for the first time ever there was no parade in Ellensburg on Memorial Day but one thing didn't change...the VFW members and Families were still placing flags on the graves of all Veterans.

I am very proud to say that my hometown still has a memorial day parade with WWII vets in the back of convertibles, high school marching bands, a tank and a flyover by the local air guard. It is one of the joys of living in a small town....