I think the Memorial Day holiday should have been this weekend instead of last weekend. They could have had it be today.

When I was a kid Memorial Day was when we'd sell artificial poppies to raise money for the veterans, or more likely the American Legion. The lady in charge of it was Lucy Murphy, widow of Clint Murphy, who was a circus clown. In our small 1000 person town everyone knew everyone, so it was a lot of fun and didn't feel like panhandling.

It was always a big thing to decorate the graves of our relatives. My grandma had metal flower baskets that were left over from funerals in the past. She'd get them out and we'd cut lilacs and iris to fill them. Then, we loaded them in the back of the pickup and drove them out to Greenlawn Cemetery. The town would have a parade and a little ceremony and all the veterans and American Legion ladies put on uniforms and marched in it.

I will go to Greenlawn this weekend to check on things. The caretakers let people plant perennials so there are a lot of pretty flowers this time of year. The family graves are all together, and there is a nice peony, some good iris, and a lovely forget-me-not that came from my grandma's garden. I might dig up a start from that and see if it would grow up here.

Like the iris and lilacs, the oriental poppies bloom this time of year.