Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a day set aside to honor our military -- living and dead -- those men and women who had fought to make our country the best in the world. Memorial Day was always on May 30th until Congress got it in its head that Monday holidays were better than Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday, or any other day holidays, and decided that all holidays, would be on the Monday that fell nearest the date set up originally for that holiday.

Alan and I were and still are watching the Indianapolis 500. Traditionally it was held on Memorial Day, May 30. Since the holiday was changed to a Monday holiday, however, the race has been held on the Sunday before the holiday, which will never be on May 30!

My oldest child, Phil, was born on May 30th, when it was still Memorial Day. Who won the Indy 500 that year? Mario Andretti!!! So the Andrettis have been our favorite since then. Right now, which is near the end of the race, Marco Andretti (Mario's grandson) and J. Andretti (another grandson?) are NOT winning, but the race is not over.


Tomorrow is a picnic day for our family and that's what brought this to my mind. Our Memorial Day Celebrations as a child were on MEMORIAL DAY, May 30, not the last Monday of May as they are now. And I've talked a lot about those special days. No matter what day of the week, everything shut down, and we celebrated the day. The VFW had a memorial service at the VFW center on Clements Bridge Road early in the morning. And our community will have a short service at our flagpole to honor those who have served our country.

As we were driving down to Tennessee I noticed all these irises along the road and that, of course, brought back Memorial Day memories because it was a tradition that we would visit the Iris farm in Allen, Pennsylvania on that day. Mom, me, Aunt Anne, and whomever else wanted to go piled into Uncle Joe Egitto's car and off we went.

Poor Uncle Joe, and sweet Uncle Joe, he just was the driver, and he had to wait patiently in the car while we tromped through the iris beds oohing and aahing at the old and new varieties of this wonderful plant. I just love irises. I think they are beautiful, stately, and the colors are fantastic.

After we had our fill of iris looking we would pile back in Uncle Joe's car and go back to Aunt Anne's for the annual picnic. Every Italian lady (all were Italian) brought something yummy to share with everyone else. Actually, I think each lady brought stuff for their family making enough for at least a dozen more of each dish. We did not go hungry.

We enjoyed the day visiting with cousins, aunts and uncles -- catching up on the past year's events in each other's lives. It was a happy, fun day. The Evangelistas kept us laughing with their good humor and jokes. They still have that ability -- the wonderful ability to make people happy.

So, tomorrow we shall gather -- the Hahn clan -- and continue our own family tradition -- a picnic in the afternoon on Memorial Day. The difference is that we always go to a park for this event. We've been doing this for at least 7 years now. We started doing that the year we moved to Cold Spring and we've been here that long. This is our 8th summer at our final earthly home.

Have a good day tomorrow, and remember to pray for those in service people in our family -- Peter Hahn serving on a submarine somewhere in the Mediterranean.