ALL Gave Some ~ Some Gave ALL

~Thank YOU to each of YOU for YOUR Service ~
past, present and future from the center of my heart for Our Liberty!!!
This is the stuff I was raised on !! This is the stuff that matters !!
My family treated Memorial Day Weekend like Christmas .
It was everything to my Parents for us all be together and respect and understand the Power of Service and the gifts we have because of it !!
Tonight I have found myself quietly watching an Andy Griffin Marathon and you know what I am free to do so and feel safe ! ( warm smile ) ..

The United States has a rich history, and Memorial Day is one of the holidays originated to show our respect for those who have died for it and the many freedoms we enjoy on a daily basis. Memorial Day (originally called Decoration Day) was officially proclaimed in 1868 by General John Logan, and first observed on May 30, 1868 by placing flowers on graves of Civil War soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. Since 1971, Memorial Day has been celebrated on the last Monday of May, to allow for a 3 day Memorial Day Weekend.

Discuss American history with your family. We get so busy with our day to day lives that we often forget to slow down and really think about the reason our national holidays were started. It is important to discuss the pride we have in our country and how we appreciate those that came before us, especially with our children.
Buy a poppy from the VFW. Beginning in 1922 the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) took a Dutch and French tradition and began to sell poppies nationally, to raise money for veterans in need. Today these poppies are made my disabled veterans and sold each Memorial Day Weekend.

Participate in the "National Moment of Remembrance", which was started in 2000. This is a resolution asks American citizens to stop anything they may be doing at 3 p.m. local time, and observe a moment of silence.

Show respect for fallen war veterans. Visit cemeteries or war memorials to show your respect. Lay flowers or place flags as a remembrance to what the war veteran has given for his or her country. Many cemeteries have fallen war veterans whose family no longer lives close by. You can "adopt" these grave sites to show that their service has not been forgotten.

Spend quality time with your family, loved ones and enjoy (and appreciate) the freedom that others have given their lives for. Most cities will have parades and other celebrations. What ever one does or does not do .. Please keep the memory of all those that indeed not only gave the ultimate sacrifice but also to the so many that have and continue Serve !! I always say thank YOU !! So much perhaps it is not realized just how deep it comes from !!!

Local Observances Claim To Be First Local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.
Today, cities in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va. The village of Boalsburg, Pa., claims it began there two years earlier. A stone in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery carries the statement that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866. Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen. Logan. Approximately 25 places have been named in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, many of them in the South where most of the war dead were buried.

Official Birthplace Declared In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial Day. There, a ceremony on May 5, 1866, honored local veterans who had fought in the Civil War. Businesses closed and residents flew flags at half-staff. Supporters of Waterloo’s claim say earlier observances in other places were either informal, not community-wide or one-time events.
By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed proclamations designating the day, and the Army and Navy adopted regulations for proper observance at their facilities.
It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.



In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly.
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who die
We shall notsleep,though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
This was the poem written by World War I Colonel John McCrae, a surgeon with Canada 's First Brigade Artillery. It expressed McCrae's grief over the "row on row" of graves of soldiers who had died on Flanders' battlefields, located in a region of western Belgium and northern France. The poem presented a striking image of the bright red flowers blooming among the rows of white crosses and became a rallying cry to all who fought in the First World War. The first printed version of it reportedly was in December 1915, in the British magazine Punch.


"Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -

The Story of Taps
The 24-note bugle call known as “taps” is thought to be a revision of a French bugle signal, called “tattoo,” that notified soldiers to cease an evening’s drinking and return to their barracks or garrisons. It was sounded one hour before the bugle call that brought the military day to an end by ordering the extinguishing of fires and lights. The last five measures of the tattoo resemble the modern day "Taps."until 1874.
The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery’s position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies. Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services and is still used to signal “lights out” at day’s end.

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