Anybody remember Decoration Day?

[pscot]

That's what we called it when I was a kid. Congress changed it when LBJ was president. During the Civil War when thousands of men were coming home dead, people started going out in large numbers to decorate the graves of the fallen. Whole towns turned out. It was formalized in 1866, and for a hundred years after that it was called Decoration Day. I don't remember why they changed it Maybe they thought that sounded archaic, or not inclusive enough. We've had a lot of wars since 1866. Later, when they passed the Monday holiday law it turned into another 3-day week end. Most people just go shopping or fire up the barbee, but it's still a busy day in the nation's grave yards. I visited the Vietnam Memorial and Arlington one year and there were crowds of people out, remembering, and leaving decorations, too.

[frogmarch]

1. I do! I still sometimes call it Decoration Day.

Here’s an old postcard with a colorized photograph of Civil War veterans at Sawtelle Veterans Home in Los Angeles (year unknown) commemorating Decoration Day - although the postcard inscription calls it Memorial Day.

My great-grandfather was a Union veteran and lived at Sawtelle Veterans Home for time. He died there in 1898 and is buried at the cemetery there.

[oldandhappy]

2. Yes, I do.

Talked about Decoration Day with a friend today, smile.

[SheilaT]

3. And there were all sorts of different dates

that were used, generally some time in May or June. Some states didn't observe that holiday at all.

Before we went to the standard Monday holidays, I worked in Arizona for a company out of Texas. As I recall, we had a different date for Memorial day than the one the rest of Arizona was observing.

[grasswire]

4. yes

....and my mother used to tell stories of her childhood in Connecticut in the 1920s when Decoration Day meant great bouquets of iris to take to the cemetery, and a huge parade where her grandfather, a Civil War hero, rode in an open car when he could no longer walk the parade route. There was a big dinner at the church and all the children dressed up to make their grandparents proud.

It was a big community occasion.

Today I went to the grave of my uncle who was a P.O.W. on Corregidor in WWII. My cousin cares for the family graves, but I was there just to visit and pay my respoects for his sacrifice -- an Army surgeon had to saw off his leg that was injured during the artillery bombardment by the Japanese. He was a P.O.W. for three years until Manilla was liberated by the Yanks.

[pscot]

5. I had not known death had undone so many

[kelliekat44]

6. Yes. nt