Eirene, one of my grandmother's five sisters took time toward the end of her life to write out memories of growing up on the farm in Concord, MA. She paints a clear picture of life in the early nineteen hundreds. A favorite entry of mine is the description of Memorial Day.
"Memorial Day was prepared for early as wreaths were made for our loved ones and also for the earlier war veterans. … For days before, we were busy gathering ground pine, wild flowers, lilac if it was in bloom and then all had busy fingers, making the wreath frames and then putting the flowers or whatever we gathered on the wreath frames. A wreath and a new flag was placed on each veteran’s grave and then the cannons were fired.
Those early days before the advent of our car in 1911, we always went to the services in the horse-drawn carriage with the fringe around the top. The parade was always impressive, all the Civil War, Spanish American War veterans who were able to march did, the rest rode. The wreaths were laid on the graves in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery … and on to the Catholic Cemetery where the wreath laying was repeated. The cannons were fired in salute.
When all graves had been decorated, the parade returned to the village green, where taps was played, two buglers, one in the band and one as an echo from the hill by the Catholic Church and old cemetery. That was a moving part of the day."
Decades later, Memorial Day took on different importance to our family. MORE