As we near the end of May, thoughts of summer are not far ahead, but first we have Memorial Day to think about. I grew up in a town of 800 people, and Memorial Day was something we looked forward to every year. For one thing, school was finally out for the summer, and it was a full three months - we wouldn't return until after Labor Day.

The town had a brief celebration with a small parade, and the veterans of by-gone wars came out in their uniforms.

The parade would end up at the town cemetery, and all the families had been out there the night before planting annuals at their loved ones' graves or bringing those cemetery baskets filled with cut flowers from the yard - lilacs, iris, and orange poppies.





My grandma had four or five of those metal baskets like this one here, only painted white.



As if it was yesterday, I can see her organizing the flower picking and getting the baskets out there, and talking about whose turn it was (my mother or my Aunt Jean's) to see that the baskets got returned to her house.

Many of the graves have perennials planted, so the flowers bloom untended by family. These are my mother and father's graves. He planted those peonies in 1986 when my mom died.



I like this single peony; most of the ones we see are double.



Then, my grandma always had a family picnic that included extended family coming from Denver. This included my cousin Betsy, who now lives near us in Las Vegas.



They would get all dressed up. Betsy is the one with her arms crossed.

Betsy's sister Gail and I have talked about the side dishes we remember our mothers bringing to those picnics, but can't for the life of us recall what the the main entree was. I don't think it was grilled hamburgers because my dad's family wasn't much for grilling in those days. They all owned feedlots, so there was plenty of beef, and maybe it was roast beef.

My Aunt Eleanor, who never got married, made a punch from various frozen fruit concentrates: grape juice, lemonade, and maybe orange juice. She might have added gingerale to it. This is another item of discussion between me and my cousins, and nobody can quite remember.

My grandma didn't have a television set, but I remember the dads had a radio on broadcasting the Indy 500 and they would listen in every so often.

And the most important thing that happened on Memorial Day, the most important thing about summer when I was a kid, was the town swimming pool opened for the season! We lived just practically next to it, and were over there every single summer day for the best part of our childhood.