Decoration Day

Hi All,

Even though the name "Decoration Day" was changed around 1900 to Memorial Day many of the old timers we grew up with still called it "Decoration Day." It fell on May 30th since its inception in the late 1850s until the early 1970s when it was changed to the fourth Monday in May.

I think everyone pretty much accepts the fourth Monday in May now as Memorial Day, but for some time different groups celebrated it on different days. Different cemeteries have different rules regarding the planting of flowers, but I remember my wife's grandmother, Nellie (Boozan) Rooney, every year, just before Memorial Day, making her trek up to St. Theresa's Cemetery up in Hyde Park where her husband, his parents, their son Dennis, who died in WWII, and infant sons were buried to plant flowers on their graves. Unlike many who do this, she always made several trips back during the summer to insure the plants were doing well and in dry weather, making sure they were watered. It was also a practice, on lots of Sunday afternoons for her and my wife's Aunt Helen to visit not only that cemetery, but the one up in Binghamville, where many of her Boozan relatives were buried.

There are still a few people today who visit the cemeteries on a continuing basis, but more often than not, many never return once their loved ones have been laid to rest.

Not that I had any problem with them changing when Memorial Day was, but it did cause me some other problems. I always planted my tomato plants on Memorial Day and for more years than I can remember, I lost them all to frost, since I live in kind of a "Frost Pocket." It may not seem like much, but that 4 or 5 days earlier was just in time to catch an unexpected frost. All of a sudden, I realized I just could not plant my tomatoes here on Memorial Day anymore, unless I wanted to make sure I was ready to cover them on those cool nights.

With the new Memorial Day, the fourth Monday of May, we now have a Memorial Day Weekend with parades and celebrations on either Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. Whatever day you celebrate, I hope it is or was enjoyable.

Have a great Holiday off from work.