10 Memorial Day Remembrances by Maggie Lynch

 

FLAGS FOR MEMORIAL DAY

I’ve been chosen to end this month of celebrating the wonderful 10 years of the Romancing the Genres blog. I have not been a constant member of the blog for those ten years, though I have certainly read it for all that time. It is a great accomplishment to have kept it going and to have more than a thousand posts commemorating authors, books, writing, and how all of it is important to our lives.

Because today is Memorial Day in the U.S., I’m sharing ten ways to engage in Memorial Day observances which is to remember those who have died while serving our country.  As I’ve shared before, our eldest son is a veteran of the Iraq war. Though he was able to come home without physical scars, he did have people in his unit who died and a number who lost a leg or arm. Facing that reality is something every soldier, and families of soldiers, often need to come to terms with. For many young men, it is the first time they’ve had a friend their own age die.

When I was our son’s age when he was in Iraq, it was the Vietnam War that took the lives of some of my friends and left scars for so many others. Before that, my parent’s generation remember the Korean War and World War II. Memorial Day honors all those who died while serving in the military—even if not in war time.

MEMORIAL DAY BARBECUE

When and How Did Memorial Day Start?
Originally known as Decoration Day, this day of remembrance originated in the years following the end of the Civil War in 1865. It has been a holiday, known either as Memorial Day or Decoration Day since then. Even before the war ended, towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to their fallen soldiers. They would decorate their graves with flowers and recite prayers.

There is debate about where the first Memorial Day was held. Many cities have claimed they were the first, and in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, NY was the first celebration which was held in 1866. However, there are records and evidence to show a commemoration was organized by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. They held the service at the race track where many union soldiers (black and white) were killed.

In 1971, Memorial Day was officially designated as the last Monday in May under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The purpose was to align the timing of ten federal holidays across the United States with designated time off. Though enforced only for federal employees, many states have adopted those holidays as official state observances as well. There are, of course, certain states who choose to have remembrance of fallen soldiers on different dates and for different reasons. Some of those are in addition to the federal holiday and others do not celebrate the date of the federal holiday at all, choosing to use their own memorial designation.

Today, most American’s first thought of Memorial Day is that it is a fun-packed three-day weekend that unofficially marks the beginning of summer. People have backyard cookouts, go camping or fishing, or simply get out into nature. I’ve done that as well when I was younger. But over the past three decades I’ve always taken time to remember veterans and to do something to honor their sacrifice. I hope one of the ten ways listed below may give you an extra thought of how you might celebrate this time of remembrance.

Ten Ways to Remember Memorial Day

1. Did you know that each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time? In 2000 Congress established a national moment of remembrance to take place at 3:00pm your local time as a show of unity in recognition of the sacrifices of our veterans. Check to see if there is a community remembrance in your town at that time. If not, consider setting an alarm and taking just one minute to stop at 3pm and give thanks to all veterans who have served our country. Then take another minute to give a blessing for all those who died.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Wear a red poppy (real or paper cutout) on your collar or shirt. During World War I, people started wearing a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in the war. A poem often recited on Memorial Day is “In Flanders Fields,” written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian who served as a brigade surgeon for an Allied artillery unit and saw the carnage of that war first hand. Perhaps you can read the poem to yourself or with others on Memorial Day. Here is a post about how to make your own red poppy pin from tissue paper.
   
   
3. Place a small flag, flowers, or some other momento at graves of fallen soldiers. There are a number of community opportunities to help decorate graves. We often see the Boy Scouts doing it, but in many towns across the country, they look for volunteers to help with this. There are also veteran-aligned non-profit organizations that raise money to purchase flowers and do this work. Check your local community as well as national efforts.
   
   
4. Lend a Helping Hand. Memorial Day is about honoring fallen service members, but that doesn't mean that we can't use the holiday to show both veterans and enlisted men and women how much they mean to us. Visit a local veterans' hospital or a nearby VFW post. A simple gift of cookies, cards, poems or flowers might do more to lift the spirits of an aging veteran than you could possibly imagine. If you're already planning to have a socially distanced barbecue this year, try reaching out to the family of someone currently serving in the military in another state or country. Invite them over to share a Memorial Day to thank and recognize them for their own sacrifice of being separated from their loved one serving far away from home.
   
   
   
   
   
5. If you live nearby, visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery near Washington D.C. or watch the Memorial Day ceremony on television when the President lays a wreath at the tomb. "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God" is the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknowns, established at Arlington National Cemetery to inter the remains of the first Unknown Soldier, a World War I fighter. Since then, unknown soldiers from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War have been subsequently interred in the tomb on Memorial Day.
   
   

   

   Native American Veteran's Memorial
   National Mall

6. Visit a monument to veterans. Every state has them, and many towns and cities have a place for those who served from their city. Take time to learn about at least one of the people there. You can do that sometimes simply with a Google search. Perhaps look at newspaper archives for your city in the year that person died. Or look up the conflict in which that person served.
   
   
7. Attend a Memorial Day parade. Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year. It usually includes bands and floats, and always military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. 
   
   
8. Ride Your Motorcycle for 22 Miles in Honor of soldiers missing in action and prisoners of war. Beginning in 1988 motorcyclists have ridden into Washington D.C. to call attention to Vietnam veterans still missing in action or prisoners of war. They called it Rolling Thunder. Since then, those rallies have swelled from 2,500 bikers in 1988 to as many as 300,000 bikers. Though 2019 was the last year of that specifically named ride, AMVETS took over the organizing in 2020 and changed its focus and name to Rolling to Remember and added the ride through local communities option. Traveling 22 miles is significant, because in addition to raising awareness for soldiers missing in action and prisoners of war, AMVETS wants to bring attention to the average 22 veterans who die by suicide every day.
   
   
9. Watch the National Memorial Day Concert. Every year, PBS airs the Memorial Day Concert from Washington D.C. on the Sunday prior at 8pm Eastern Time. It includes all-star performances and tributes not only from D.C. but from around the country honoring fallen soldiers.
   
   
10. Say a Prayer, Ask for a Blessing, Lite a Candle for a Fallen Soldier. Whatever your personal spiritual or moral practice, find a way to spend some time thinking of those who have given their life in service to our country, including their families and friends who they touched during their life.

 Rituals are helpful in recognizing major events and in providing a context for understanding them and their impact in our lives. I hope this article may have provided you with one or more new ways to consider celebrating and remembering Memorial Day both now and in the future.

Bio: 
Maggie Lynch is the author of 26+ published books, as well as numerous short stories and non-fiction articles.  Her fiction tells stories of men and women making heroic choices one messy moment at a time. She is the founder of Windtree Press. She blogs regularly about author opportunities and challenges at POV Author Services. When talking about her own writing processes, reading, and love of books you can find her blogging on her Maggie Lynch website.

 

One-Hour Vacations

By Courtney Pierce

It’s a toss-up: a pedicure or a deep tissue massage, the serious kind. Either option is a great mini-vacation to indulge myself, but a combo of the two services just might entice me to cancel a trip to Disneyworld (not that I’d ever go there anyway).

Step one on the enjoyment meter is to shut off my phone. No intruders are allowed to bust into my bubble.

Step two is to use the restroom. Avoiding any interruption once we get going is mandatory. Who wants to get off the warm massage table or pull their wrinkled feet from the bubbling water to take a pee? Not me.

If I start with the massage, I like to supply my own CD of nature sounds, gentle rain, and a thunderstorm.  It speeds up the “turn to jelly” process.  I have an outstanding masseuse here in Kalispell. He even hangs from the ceiling and uses his feet. He’ll run his heels up my back and over my shoulder blades. It’s amazing.

I'm not a gabber or gossiper when it comes to services. I like to mentally go away while I'm being pampered. Pedicures allow me to pull out my notebook and write the old-fashioned way.

The pedicure is all about tools. Pickers, clippers, and files are essential for a fulfilling

session. They get rid of all the stuff that I can't reach or even see. I rest the back of my head in silence as the chair vibrates during the leg massage. I grab the remote for the back roll and pause.

To the undulating roller, I think about my indulgence. Suddenly I feel guilty. It's not about me. I never fought, never sacrificed. We women work through lists to make sure our families have what they want and need. We have and need so much, way too much.

Here it is Memorial Day. So many soldiers sacrificed their lives for me to be able to get that pedicure and massage A spoiled girl, a privileged girl, a girl who never had to push the way our forefathers did. That's not right. I need to work harder.

In my binoculars are two adult geese with fourteen goslings. They line up in a perfect line, like little soldiers, for their trek across the lake, not a single youngin' out of place. They are in a lock-down for learning to be independent, not to do nothing and sure they will be taken care of. But maybe not. There are threats from eagles and osprey that could turn their family of eight to a family of two or three.

The geese take care of their young, with only a minimal handout for them to hunt for their

sustenance. Daddy watches. Mama herds to make sure an eagle doesn't pick off one of her precious ones. There's only so much they can do.

And there you have it. The Yin and Yang of the Memorial weekend. I hung the American flag this weekend in honor of our fallen soldiers. It flies free and so do I.

Photo: Micah Brooks

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband, stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat, Princeton. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Coming in 2020!

When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting for her too . . . for a different reason.

There's an inter-connectedness...

by M.L. Buchman

It's always odd when you look out your window and discover connections, sometimes in the strangest ways. I was meeting some friends for lunch in the little town of Depoe Bay here on the Oregon Coast. For reasons that still elude me, we were meeting on Memorial Day; not just the weekend, but the day itself.

Perhaps something needs to be said here about the central Oregon coast. It's lovely. At least it is when we aren't getting our requisite 85 inches of rain a year or the chill summer fog hasn't rolled in because they're having a heat wave on the other side of the Coast Range.

Low tide beach being lovely. (It's only a little bit smug about it.)

So, when a weekend occurs, especially a holiday weekend, locals do not leave their homes. We hunker down and hide until the crowds depart. These little towns' populations expand five to ten-fold in a matter of hours on Friday afternoons and when they empty, the sole coastal highway is, well, not lovely.

Yet somehow we were at this restaurant in Depoe Bay rubbing shoulders with many, many tourists, and this surprising thing occurred. We knew it was going to happen, which was another reason that I had argued to avoid this day, but after days of being grumpy about it, I was quite touched.

Depoe Bay has a fishing fleet, a very small one, but then its a very small town so you wouldn't be surprised. Do you remember the fishing trip from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Yep, Depoe Bay. Didn't register even if you saw the movie? Yep, the town is that small.

But once a year on Memorial Day the local fishing fleet is decorated with thousands upon thousands of flowers. The National Anthem is sung, the fleet is blessed, and then they proceed to a spot a mile offshore where two fisherman died almost eighty years ago while trying to save another. The boats circle up, and a Coast Guard helicopter flies in low to drop a wreath (I just missed it in the photo, sorry).

The Depoe Bay fishing fleet circled up.

They are there to remember all those who died at sea and during the war.

As a writer of military romantic suspense, I have learned a great deal about those who serve, the choices they make, and those who don't return. What could have been such a touristy moment was actually deeply moving and our table took a moment to add to the prayers for the safety of the afloat and afar.

I can only wish the same for you and yours.

M. L. Buchman has over 35 novels in print. His military romantic suspense books have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year” and Booklist “Top 10 of the Year.” He has been nominated for the Reviewer’s Choice Award for “Top 10 Romantic Suspense of 2014” by RT Book Reviews. In addition to romance, he also writes thrillers, fantasy, and science fiction.

In among his career as a corporate project manager he has: rebuilt and single-handed a fifty-foot sailboat, both flown and jumped out of airplanes, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world. He is now making his living as a full-time writer on the Oregon Coast with his beloved wife. He is constantly amazed at what you can do with a degree in Geophysics. You may keep up with his writing by subscribing to his newsletter at www.mlbuchman.com.

Celebrating Memorial Day

By Kristina McMorris

Anyone who knows me well is fully aware how much I love celebrations! In my pre-author life, I was

KRISTINA MCMORRIS

actually the owner of a wedding and event planning company. Having helped coordinate up to fourteen weddings a summer, I’m pretty sure I’ve witnessed enough YMCA and chicken-dance performances to last a lifetime. In other words, it would be safe to say I’m an “expert” at celebrating. The cake, the toasts, the dancing, the joyful smiles. Who doesn’t enjoy an evening of those?

This past weekend, however, was a celebration of another kind. At the mention of Memorial Day, many people today think of barbecues, parades, no work, no school, and travel. All of these are wonderful things, no doubt about it. But of course, the most important purpose of this particular holiday is to properly honor our military servicemen and –women.  

I’m proud to say that our two young sons, as part of the Cub Scout tradition, participate each year in an activity that does precisely that. On the Thursday before Memorial Day, they join hundreds of other Scouts at a national cemetery to pay tribute to those whose bravery helped secure the freedom we all enjoy today.  

In the inevitable downpour, the Scouts grab their allotted stick flags and one by one place them at the grave markers of American veterans. As if this alone isn’t enough to touch my heart, the kids also salute those veterans individually and thank each one aloud by name. Within an hour, 150,000 flags were standing at attention and waving for veteranS whose service hasn’t been forgotten.  

All that said, I think it’s also important for us to remember that honoring our military men and women should occur on more than one day of the year.

 

My own grandfather’s WWII letters actually inspired me to write my first novel, and I have since tried my best to spotlight the sacrifice of WWII veterans in all of my books. Last year, I had the opportunity to take our kids to visit the

gravesite of that same grandfather, and the boys spent at least fifteen minutes arranging the flowers they brought to look “just right.” We’ve also thoroughly enjoyed sponsoring a soldier serving in Afghanistan by sending letters and care packages with goodies and essentials from home.

In other words, there’s much we can all do in both small and large ways – starting with a simple yet heartfelt “Thank you.”

************************************************

www.KristinaMcMorris.com

Now available: Letters From Home, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves,

The Christmas Collector (novella in A Winter Wonderland anthology)

New York Times and USA Today bestseller!

MEMORIAL DAY - MARGARET TANNER

MEMORIAL DAY – BATTLEFIELD SCENE
Call it blatant self promotion if you will, but I thought as it is only a few days to Memorial Day in the US, I would post a battlefield excerpt from my latest historical romance, Daring Masquerade, which is set during the 1^st World War.
In Australia we remember our war dead, on ANZAC Day, 25^th April and also Remembrance Day/Armistice Day on 11^th November.
ANZAC Day commemorates the landing at Gallipoli in Turkey by The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS) on the 25^TH April, 1915. And the 25^th April is now sacred. It is when we remember the brave men and women who paid the supreme sacrifice in the 1^st World War and in subsequent wars, 2^nd World War, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. These battlefields are also stained with American blood, as you would be well aware.

War is a terrible thing, it not only affects the soldier on the battlefield, but also those who are left at home. How many lives have been blighted by war? How many families torn apart? Even after a war ends the consequences are still dire. Young men and women return home, broken in body and mind. Some never recover and carry the scars of their war service for the rest of their lives. This in turn affects their families. I can remember as a child, my father (who saw active service in World War 2) having these terrible nightmares. He would scream out so loudly that he woke up the whole household.My mother who had been engaged to him before he went to war, said that when he returned home, he was not the same man that he was before. Consequently, because of Dad's nightmares, we could never have friends stay overnight, in case Dad had one of his "turns."

DARING MASQUERADE – Out on Kindle from Books We Love Publishing
The third battle for Ypres had begun. The first and second Australian Divisions marched through the ruins of Ypres in Flanders, and fought their way along the Menin Road ridge. Their ultimate destination was Passchendale.

It had been raining steadily, the front had turned into a sea of mud, criss-crossed with miles of concrete German blockhouses. A German arc of machine gun fire dominated the landscape and the casualties were terrible.

Ross despaired of the carnage ever ending. After one battle another always followed. Men died or were wounded; many simply disappeared into the mud.

Reinforcements came and went, followed by more reinforcements. Few old faces were left now.
Increasingly, he feared he might never leave this chamber of horrors and return to Harry at Devil’s Ridge. Never get the chance to utter the words, ‘I love you,’ to his wife.

How much longer could his luck hold out? He had suffered several minor shrapnel wounds that only required a dressing.

On the morning of the fourth of October, 1917, Ross’ unit was sent to Broodseinde Ridge. Forty minutes before the attack, soldiers waiting in the rear a mile behind the line saw white and yellow German flares through the hazy drizzle.

0530 hours.  Heavy trench mortars fell on Ross’s men as they sheltered in shell holes. At 0600 hours, the British artillery barrage opened up and he waited. Another attack—more casualties in this endless saga of death and suffering.

White tapes marked the jump off area. When the signal for attack came, he urged his men on.
“Come on, come on.”

He stood up and started running. Officers led by example, he remembered from training. The men charged forward now, yelling and screaming.

A line of troops rose from some shell holes a little in front of them, and Ross suddenly realized they were Germans mounting a counter attack. Too late to do anything but keep on going.

He did not see where the firing came from, but felt a thud, first in one leg then the other. As he sank to his knees, he felt a bullet slamming into his chest. He toppled forward.  Soldiers ran over him. Boots pressing into his back forced him deeper into the mud.

This is the end. I’ll never see Harry again.

He regained consciousness. It was daylight. How long had he been lying out in no-man’s land? Groggily, he got to his hands and knees. Pain and exhaustion racked his body. Breathing was agony. The landscape see-sawed. Shell fire echoed in his ears.

What’s the use? All I have to do is close my eyes and sink back into the mud and oblivion.

Too tired to fight any more, he started slipping away. His body floated upwards and the pain disappeared.

“Ross, don’t leave me. Fight Ross, fight for me.”

“Harry?” He opened his eyes but he was alone.  Only dead men, twisted and grotesque lay out here in no-man’s land with him.

Did he want to leave Harry a widow at twenty? Never hold his son? Oh, God, he couldn’t die like a dog out here. His body might never be recovered. Harry would wait and mourn, but keep on hoping for years. She would never hear the words ‘I love you,’ fall from his lips. What a bloody fool he had been obsessing over Virginia, instead of letting himself fall in love with Harry. Now it was too late.  She would never know the true depth of his feelings for her. He couldn’t do it to her. He must survive.

http://www.amazon.com/Daring-Masquerade-ebook/dp/B0081CJECY/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTG8&qid=13364772888&sr=1-10