Memorial Day Events 2020 email: coledonnellan17@gmail.com

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Jerry says stay healthy.   

Happy Memorial Day?

[Editorial written by Jerry Donnellan...2015]         

When I was a little kid in Nyack, I couldn't wait for the Memorial Day Parade.  I had a new bike - a two-wheeler, and I was going to weave red, white, and blue crepe paper in the spokes and ride at the end of the Memorial parade like the big kids did.  By "big kids" then, I meant 11 and 12 year olds!  I was all set to go when a cranky old veteran told me that Memorial Day was not about having fun.

The world has turned a couple of times since then and now that I'm the cranky old veteran, I understand, and I chafe when people wish me a "Happy Memorial Day," but, being now a man of peace, I just smile and nod.

Since World War II we have steadily drifted away from the meaning of Memorial Day.  In 1971 it became the Monday holiday, changed from the original 30th of May.  This made it open season on shopping and sales, and truly commercialized the day.  In 1973 the Draft ended, so fewer families understood military service and its costs.

In 1987, the Rockland County Vietnam Veterans came together and started the Watchfires. We decided they should be on the traditional Memorial Day and not require a band, fireworks, or an audience, other than those who understood. Somebody actually told me they were inconvenienced. Memorial Day seems to have become a second 4th of July.

On Memorial Day, I saw that an ad was taken out by one of our local politicians, thanking the troops and veterans.  Of course, that was the small print.  The bigger part of the ad was a picture of himself.  That's all well and good, but it ain't about troops or veterans.

It's about those who are no longer troops, and didn't live long enough to be veterans.  But I guess they can't vote - except maybe in Chicago!  That's not to say that the day has to be spent hanging crepe, or acting as if you're at a wake or sitting shiva.  But somewhere in the course of the day, take the time to remember, and tell the kids.

I've been to war and the short of it is, it's hard to know the true cost.  Trying to explain this is also hard. Although it doesn't happen often, you know how you feel when you're at the Mall and someone stops and lets you take a parking space that they could have taken?  You think, "What a nice person."  You even tell your friends and family - maybe even for a day or two.

Well, the people we honor on Memorial Day gave up more than their parking space.