I remember as a boy going to our family's Memorial Day picnic. Then I moved out of state. It's been a long time since I went to that family gathering, but I bet a lot of you have one today or just finished one over the weekend.
What's it like at your family gathering? Do you get together at the lodge in the local park and hope it doesn't rain (too much)? Have you been assigned a dish to bring? And if you are a veteran, what are you going to say to your family when you get together?
Liberals love their family, too, and their community and their country. We are proud of our heritage, both the heritage from the Old Country and the heritage of our new country. We are just as apt to go with our family down to Main Street and watch the parade. We are just as apt to go down to the ball park to cheer on our home team. And, yes, we may get a tear in our eye when the flag goes by or the band strikes up the "Star Spangled Banner."
Liberals are Americans first because we understand at a gut level just what freedom means. And we know in our gut to be proud of those who contribute to our freedom.
Sometimes Memorial Day seems pretty "secular". There's a lot of good food passed around and little talk about remembering anyone, other than family members who passed away over the last year. But, there are few holidays that are more inherently "American". The simple act of reconnecting with our friends, family and community reminds us that we are all in this together. Memorial Day, if nothing else, is a day to act American, to be part of the culture.
Our family got together in a little cement-block building at Dogwood Park in North Canton, Ohio. It had long tables where each little family group could unload their dishes. Since my clan was of almost exclusively German extraction, those dishes were filled with potato salad, sauerkraut and ham. I don't remember much talk about veterans or wars, but then I was pretty young and maybe the veterans didn't make too much of their experience. That was a time before the war in Vietnam heated up and the country, for all we knew, was at peace.
What I do remember is that it seemed to rain every year. I don't actually remember a year when it was sunny and dry outdoors. In between rain showers, when it was still moist outside, we could take a short walk in the woods out back, where the trees were still dripping and you had to walk carefully to keep from sliding in the mud going up the little hill. Or, I could play with my many red-haired cousins under the big trees in the yard, maybe sitting briefly at the picnic tables before getting chased indoors by a sprinkle.
I remember trying to play horseshoes. I wasn't big enough to handle a horseshoe, so even getting it near the stake was a big problem. And, of course, that also meant that I couldn't keep the badminton shuttlecock going, either. And my croquet balls always seemed to go out of bounds.
Most of the time, I got stuck indoors, playing board games with the other kids, unless I could finagle a hand in one of the Euchre games and play with the adults. Then I could listen to them talk about their jobs in the shop. By shop, of course, they meant factory. That was the time when the shops were turning out bits for cars and trains, for sewing machines and vacuum sweepers.
Something's gone about that time but something still remains.
I know that many of you just finished one of these picnics. Maybe yours is today. What's it like? What are you taking to the picnic? What are you taking away from it?
(And, by the way, recipes will not be considered negative comments.)