Hey, folks! How’s your Memorial Day Weekend?
A little different than normal?
It sure is, for a lot of us.
It might not be the traditional trip to Cape Cod or the Jersey Shore to kick off the summer.
It might not be your regular spot – a beach, or a lake house. It might not be open to you now.
Even if it is open, they may not be welcoming to out-of-towners.
For sure, it won’t gathering to watch parades, honoring those who died serving our country.
(Or, maybe, you’re like these fun-loving kids in the Ozarks, and acting like nothing’s changed. Man, they are living their best lives! YOLA, right? Who knew this place was more than a TV show?!)
No matter how you slice it, Memorial Day is different this year.
Maybe it’s a good time to look at the holiday differently.
Maybe it’s time to remember that Memorial Day is more than just “Opening Day of summer.”
To remember that it is a “memorial” day, to remember those who gave their lives defending our country.
Maybe it’s a day to stop and think about those men and woman, who went to far off places like France, Germany, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan – and didn’t come back.
Maybe it’s a good day to truly pay our respects to them.
Maybe we can’t gather to pay our respect, but we can still do it.
We can still go to a cemetery, and lay flowers at the grave of a solider.
We can still go to a memorial in the center of our town, and think about the names on the wall.
We can still make a donation to a Veteran’s organization.
We can still just take a quiet moment, and remember a brother or sister, who served in the military. So that we could be safe, and free.
And maybe it’s a good day to think about the people who serve us every day.
The people who put themselves at risk, so that we can live safely.
The nurses and doctors who go to work every day to try and save us, and worry about going home and infecting their children.
The cashiers at our grocery stores and department stores, standing behind their plastic shields, hoping that the “freedom fighter” in front of them who insists on not wearing a mask is not Covid-positive.
The EMTs who rush to another medical emergency, placing their faith in their masks and gloves to keep them safe from whatever their victim might have.
The sanitation workers, gripping the rails of their trucks, and hopping down to take our garbage, and make it “magically” disappear.
We should thank all of those people, every chance we get.
Maybe not just today, but every day.
And finally, we can maybe find time to remember the 100,000 people in this country who have lost their lives to this pandemic.
They’re not just statistics.
They’re grandmothers and grandfathers, dying without their families in assisted living facilities.
They’re young mothers or fathers, leaving young kids at home without a parent.
They’re people who survived wars, only to succumb to this virus.
Let’s remember them.
And let’s do whatever it takes to make sure that more people don’t join them in that number.
Whatever you’re doing, make it a good Memorial Day.
Daddy Gibs 
A nice piece Colin!! As the POS in charge calls for mourning those who died due to the pandemic… he spends it golfing. 😦 When you were a kid in Stow did they have this- the school bus would pick you up on Memorial Day and they would go to all the cemeteries. You were given a geranium to place on the grave of a veteran and there was a minister or politician at each cemetery and they would say a few words then all the kids could sing a rousing…”mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord..” Then when you had been to all the cemeteries you went to the Town Hall and had hotdogs and…. cartons of chocolate milk(ohboyohboyohboy)! By one you were home. I loved it…
Sent from Sue’s phone
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