Decoration Day

Took flowers to the cemetary a few days ago to honor those that gave everything for their country, and those that stood by them in their efforts.  Down at the farm we kinda get misty-eyed over our veterans, especially those that gave it all.  So Decoration Day, that some youngsters now call Memorial Day, is pretty special to us.  Most folks, I reckon, view it as a freebie day from work.  That's OK.  Maybe someday when they're no longer free it will have meaning to them too.

We on the farm go back a ways on America's wars.  One great grandfather was an immigrant from Germany, and in his youth he enlisted twice in the Army of the Potomac.  He was wounded twice, which is why he enlisted twice having been let go the first time on account of his serious wounds.  He recovered well enough to chase Morgan across Kentucky a ways.  Great uncle Harry died from his experience in WWI whilst great uncle Edward Christian survived it.

My pop followed Patton into France and got a grenade blast to his arm which nearly ended his life just after I was born.  They gave him a Purple Heart and Bronze Star; I never heard him speak of those, but my mother showed them to me.  Uncle Joe flew in the Pacific and Uncle Bob guarded German POWs at Camp Perry.  Uncle Bud was several years in Korea, a craphole on Earth if there ever was one.  Me?  Well, yeah, I got the call and went off to Vietnam.  Like my uncles, I was lucky too, as we all came back to the farm.

Now all the sacrifice seemed worth it to us.  You see, we were fighting for an America that stood for Freedom and Liberty, and the chance for every man and woman to create a life they earned and strived for in this great land.  Would we do it all again?  Well, that's a hard one, but I can tell ya one thing -  not for the America that fella Obama is trying to create.