Quote from Forum Archives on May 11, 2002, 6:47 pm

Posted by: leea <leea@...>

Before there was a Memorial Day the celebration was called Decoration Day.

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an
organization of Union veterans - the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) -
established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves
of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared it should be
May 30. It is believed the date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom
all over the country. The first large observance was held that year at
Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
........................
The balance of this article can be accessed at
www.va.gov/pubaff/mday/mdayorig.htm

Here is a short article that will give you the real flavor of what
decoration day was about.

"DECORATION DAY"
A Memory by Mildred Filbrun Heck
It was called "Decoration Day" by everyone in our Ohio farm community in the
1920s. Not until I was through high school and working in Dayton was I
reminded that this late May holiday was properly called "Memorial Day".
Decoration Day was an important day to country families for on this day we
decorated the graves of our departed family members with flowers. We used
our homegrown flowers - never did we even think of stopping at commercial
greenhouses to buy flowers for our cemetery visits. Plastic and silk
flowers weren't known then either - and wouldn't have been considered proper
even if they had been available.
Weeks before Decoration Day we carefully watched our growing flowers and
shrubs and worried if they would be ready. If the weather were too warm,
the flowers would be in full bloom far too soon. If the days of late May
were too cold, the flowers would not be ready for cutting. I recall a few
years when May was hot and the flowers were heading for an early bloom. We
cut buckets of them days ahead to store in our dark, cold, sawdust insulated
icehouse. Other years, when spring was too cold, we cut the budding shrubs
and flowers and put them in warm water in our summer kitchen to force
blooms.
There were not a great variety of plants and shrubs around the farmhouses in
those days. Nor was there the time or money to spend cultivating those
plants that wouldn't grow and thrive easily. Some of the lovely,
old-fashioned plants we counted on were lilac, spirea, forsythia, pussy
willow, striped grasses, small bush roses and "snow balls" (flowering
viburnum). But the favorite old standbys were iris and peonies.
On the evening before Decoration Day the whole family got busy cutting
blooms. We used a colorful mixture for each arrangement - just large enough
to fit nicely into the quart jars containers. Then we tied each bunch
together with a bit of string and put them in buckets and foot tubs of cold
water.
The next morning we finished our farm chores as early as possible. Now the
big job was to get all those buckets, tubs and jars - and the whole family -
into our old Ford car. The baskets of old cracked and chipped canning jars
were fastened on the running boards. The flowers were squeezed into the
trunk of the car with the lid left open to keep them from being mashed. An
old sheet was loosely anchored over the flowers to keep the flowers from
being damaged by the wind. Our family piled inside the car and we kids
steadied gallon stone jugs of cold tea between our feet. Our mother held
the picnic basket on her lap. Off we went to the New Carlisle Cemetery where
Filbrun family members were buried. It was considered necessary to arrive
early to find a shady parking place near the only water pump in the
cemetery. But an early arrival also showed good planning and pride to our
neighbors and other family members. (It was like being the first in your
neighborhood to get your laundry flapping on the clothesline on Monday
morning.)
We kids ran to the water pump for buckets of water, quickly filled all the
jars and placed a bunch of flowers in each one. We all helped to carry the
arrangements around the cemetery, anchoring the jars in the soil on the
proper graves. We met lots of relatives and neighbors and our folks spent
much time chatting and catching up on the family news as they trimmed grass
or pulled weeds and generally tidied grave-sites. As we moved around the
cemetery we saw graves unkempt and barren of flowers. We overhead the
adults say the families of those deceased relatives were uncaring or
disrespectful of their dead. Decoration Day was taken seriously in those
days.
It had been a long time since our early breakfast and we kids were starved.
We gathered at the car where we sat on the grass or on the running board of
the car and ate sandwiches of pimento cheese and peanut butter, hard-boiled
eggs, cookies and drank our cold tea from the stone jugs.
In the early afternoon a band could be heard playing in the distance. We
excitedly watched for the Decoration Day Parade to make its slow way the
one-half mile from New Carlisle to the cemetery. The band was the most
exciting part of the day for we kids because what followed seemed to us as
just dull, long-winded speeches by men in ill-fitting Army uniforms.
The adults were done chatting and visiting. The flowers were all placed on
the proper graves. The picnic basket was empty. We kids were tired and
bored. Our half-hearted attempts at hide-and-seek and tag among the grave
markers had been quickly discouraged by disapproving adults. We climbed
into the car and headed home where we quickly kicked off our shoes, got into
our old clothes and ran through the cooling grass of a late spring
afternoon.
There at home we were free to be ourselves again and, though we didn't
consciously think about it, we were happy just to be alive and kicking.
This was the perfect end to our busy Decoration Day.
- This story has been edited by Mrs. Heck's brother, William S. Filbrun -

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob AuBuchon
To: pastormail@welovegod.org
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 9:20 PM
Subject: Re: [PastorMail] Still need help

You could always use the text ... "let the dead bury the dead ... you follow
me." for the cemetary dedication. :0)
I am like David ... never heard of such.
Bob A
DAVID POWELL wrote:
Mike, what in the world is a decoration service for a cemetery?Pastor David
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike and Linda Cantrell
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 1:21 PM
To: pastormail@welovegod.org
Subject: [PastorMail] Still need help
This is my second plea. Fellows, I need help. I have been asked to bring a
short message at a decoration service at the local cemetery. Does anyone
have an idea or message they would share? If this was a funeral or other
special service I could handle it, but this for some reason is difficult for
me to plan for. Thanks in advance, Mike Cantrell
--
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Running for the Prize Sermons
www.RFTPsermons.com
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www.tbcws.org
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