What’s become the official kick-off of summer, when you can officially start wearing white again and and buy a mattress cheap in a big blow-out holiday sale (are mattresses ever not on sale?) is supposed to be about remembrance. It’s right there in the name: Memorial.
For a score of families in Uvalde, in Buffalo, in Parkland, in Newtown, in Columbine, in Orlando, in Pittsburgh, in Charleston, and in scores of towns and cities in between, picnics and baseball aren’t going to feature. For some, the wounds are going to be too raw to even note that this isn’t a regular Monday, if they even know what day of the week it is. For others, half-scarred hearts will threaten to tear again under the weight of it all.
Memorial Day in America.
There’s a soundtrack in my head when I get too cynical, too hurt, too tired about life in this country. It always features Texas singer/songwriter James McMurtry, whose songs about growing up in the wide open spaces of red America track pretty darned near to my own Idaho history. Here’s his take on this day, for those who might be feeling a little nostalgia for a childhood that didn’t include this enormous weight.
"Memorial Day"
Mama keeps tryin' to get the game on the radio
Daddy's gotta know the score
There's a big yellow thing on a flat bed trailer
Wonder what that thing's for
We got towels rolled up in the back seat window
Keeping us out of the sun
Just a hundred more miles and we'll be at grandma's
Sure is gonna be fun
Maybe she'll take us fishin'
Maybe she'll bake us a pie
Remember like she did that one time
Back before grandpa died
It's Memorial Day in America
Everybody's on the road
Let's remember our fallen heroes
Y'all be sure and drive slow
Ninety eight degrees in the shade of the tool shed
Can't go back in the house
They're all in the kitchen yellin' 'bout something
Don't know what it's about
Joey 'n Mary said not to worry
Said it's just the same old fight
Happens whenever they all get together
Everything's really alright
It's Memorial Day in America
This is how it's supposed to be
Let's remember our fallen heroes
In the land of the free
Daddy's in the big chair sippin' on a cold beer
Grandma's cuttin' a switch
She overheard Mary cussin' her brother
Called him a son of a bitch
She got a good green limb off a sweet gum sapling
Man that's bound to sting
But Mary don't cry just stands there and takes it
Doesn't seem to feel a thing
No Mary don't cry, you know she's a big girl
Wonder what made her so mad
She takes those licks looking in through the den door
Staring right straight at her dad
There's a big yellow thing on a flat bed trailer
Daddy nearly hit that bird
They're both in the front seat
Starin' right straight ahead
Neither one saying a word
The sun's going down in the rear view mirror
Gonna be driving all night
Wonder if the neighbor's fed the canary
Wonder if the cat's alright