I send this out from time to time.

Here's something that will make your Memorial Day a little more memorable.

Buy a dozen or so red carnations.   Get that old  6 inch screwdriver
out of the toolbox.  Fire up that 20 year old Vanagon and drive to
your nearest National Cemetary. You can find  the locations on the
web.   If you have never visited a National Cemetery before, it will
likely be a humbling, emotional experience so you should  be prepared.

Make it a family event if you like, tell the kids or the grandkids
that you're taking the vanagon to a special place before the usual
family festivities.  Tell them that they are the flower children, and
you will be looking for special stones.

At the cemetary there are row on row of solemn white stones.  Each
has the name of the veteran or veteran's family member on it.
You are looking for the special stones, those whose inscriptions
indicate that the veteran was killed in combat.   At most cemetaries
each grave will have a small flag and many of these fallen combat
soldiers will have flowers at their graves.  Pass reverently by those
graves,  you are looking for a  combat veteran whose grave has no
flowers.   At each of these graves you can use the screwdriver to make
a small hole in the  grass and place one of those hardy carnations in
the the sod.   Think for a moment about this particular fallen soldier
and  remind yourself that you, a stranger, remembered them on this
memorial day.   You will run out of flowers before you run  out of
stones.

Before you leave, explain to your family what these veterans did and
why the freedoms you enjoy today were paid for by the strangers
beneath the stones.

Should anyone ask, " Where have all your flowers gone?" you can reply
"gone to the graveyard every one".

Al Knoll c. 2000
MAAGie 61-63 Proudly Served