Pam Taylor
Memorial Day. Decoration Day. Memory Day. Whatever you call it, it’s one of my very favorite holidays and a very busy time in Lenawee County. It’s a time to remember.
My dad was a member of the Blissfield Volunteer Fire Department and the American Legion Post 325 Robert Meachen. Memorial Day was a busy day for him; he’d drive a fire truck in Blissfield’s parade, then work at the Legion-sponsored chicken barbecue that followed. Quintessential Americana, and variations happen all over this nation, in rural areas, small towns and big cities.
Later on, my parents and I watched the parade from Dad’s favorite parking spot along U.S. 223. Sometimes we were joined by my uncle, a Navy veteran who became Lockheed Martin’s engineer-in-charge, combat systems, at Naval Air Station Oceana Dam Neck Annex in Virginia Beach. After the chicken barbecue, we visited family cemeteries, continuing a tradition started when my grandmother and her mother were alive.