I grew up in southern Missouri and Decoration Day was one of my favorite holidays. Never heard of it? Maybe you call it Memorial Day. Technically today at least, Decoration Day might not be held ON Memorial Day, but it’s right around there and the sentiment is the same.
So, what is Decoration Day? It’s a day, where everyone connected with a particular church/graveyard get together at that church/graveyard to remember the people we knew or were related to. In my case it was a small one room church that was built on land one of my great-great-great (or more) grandfather’s donated to the community. The church doesn’t have regular services anymore, but the cemetery is still open and Decoration Day goes on. There is a big covered dish dinner and a lot of ladies with Ozarkian accents pushing chocolate cake. There’s seven layer salad (made with lots of mayo), deviled eggs, Watergate salad and Koolaide.
There are people you don’t remember who pinch your cheeks and say “You must be so and so’s girl.” There are graves of babies who died in the early 1800’s that you pause over and think about who otherwise wouldn’t have been thought of for decades. And there are new graves of people you perhaps knew or were related to that you linger over too. And you probably have a tear or two leak out looking at both of these graves.
And there’s a creek with crawdaddies and sparkly rocks, and an outhouse to pee in–if you absolutely must.
And sitting here thinking about all of it, I wish more than anything in the world I was there right now.
Happy Memorial Day. Spend a few minutes thinking about the people who lived before us, then have a big slice of Coca Cola Cake and go catch some minnows–for me.
Lori
Yep..you’re southern. I never heard it called Memorial Day until I left home – it’s still referred to as Decoration day by most of the older folks. Your post brings back a lot of memories…I can almost smell the fried chicken.
FYI – found my copy of Amazon Ink at Hastings yesterday!!!
How could I forget to mention the fried chicken! I’ve been gone to long…
Hope you enjoy Amazon Ink. I don’t think it has made it to stores here yet.
Lori
Lori — Your post reminds me of my Grammie. She called it Decoration Day, too, as that was the name it had when she was a kid, when it was still celebrated to honor Union soldiers after the Civil War (it’s around the anniversary of the reunification of the country). It was expanded after WWI to include American casualties in any war, and the name changed to Memorial Day. We used to visit the graves of all Grammie’s children (my mom was the last one alive) and place flowers and flags. My uncles were all military, so the playing of Taps and 21 gun salutes were all part of the day, too.
Thanks for the memories.
I had never heard of Decoration Day, but I hope you had a good weekend!