Memorial Day

Growing up in a small town in the Mohawk Valley, each May our community came together for the annual Memorial Day Parade.

This was one of the times of the year when the whole town came together to celebrate, honor and remember the veterans, and those who died while serving our country.

The town worked with the school band director and music teacher, the volunteer fire department, women’s auxiliary, veterans, local police, and other community groups to organize and come together for a parade and town celebration. Some groups created “floats” on trailers towed by trucks. It was quite a spectacle for such a small town. As a kid playing in the marching band our scratchy wool band uniforms worn on a warm May afternoon helped to make the occasion memorable, and John Philip Sousa marches were the playlist of the day.

The parade started at the school parking lot. We marched down the hill through town and then uphill to the cemetery. It was uphill both ways.

At the cemetery the percussion section changed their beat to tapping on the rims of the drums in honor of the sacred ground we entered. We all stopped and all parade participants gathered among the decorated headstones close to the War memorial. Once there, children read the Gettysburg Address and the poem Flanders Field. A bugler played taps. After a moment of silence and quiet reflection, the drummers took up their soft beat and the parade moved out of the cemetery and back to town.

A Soldiers Memorial Day

When flow’ry Summer is at hand,
And Spring has gemm’d the earth with bloom,
We hither bring, with loving hand,
Bright flow’rs to deck our soldier’s tomb.

Gentle birds above are sweetly singing
O’er the graves of heroes brave and true;
While the sweetest flow’rs we are bringing,
Wreath’d in garlands of red, white and blue.

With snowy hawthorn, clusters white,
Fair violets of heav’nly blue,
And early roses, fresh and bright,
We wreathe the red, and white, and blue.

– Words by Mary B. C. Slade

This Memorial Day, Mohawk Valley communities, families and individuals pay special remembrance for all the military heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our freedoms, and extend heartfelt gratitude to Gold Star families, who have endured the profound loss of their loved ones.

Their strength and resilience are a source of inspiration to us all.

Wishing all a meaningful and memorable Memorial Day.