Memorial Day 2008

Yesterday Hannah did a post about Memorial Day that I thought was really good, if you haven't read it, please take the time to do so. She has some very good thoughts on her site. Well after reading her blog, I thought I should do something about Memorial Day myself.



My first remembrance of Memorial Day is when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old and I marched in the parade in SR, as a cub scout. Don't remember much about it but we marched from the park to the cemetery just below the school. Here a wreath was placed at the back of the cemetery and then there was a gun salute, then we marched back up street and when we got on the bridge we stopped and another wreath we tossed into the White River and other gun salute, back to the park and it was over. At the time I did not understand why the wreaths but now I do, the wreath in the cemetery was to honor all the soldiers who had died in combat, the wreath in the river was for all the sailors who had likewise died at sea.



That was many years ago, but that same parade will take place tomorrow, the only difference will be the people who march. The honor will be the same. If you want to experience patriotism go to a small town in New England on Memorial Day or the 4th of July. Most towns in Vermont have a park, green or an area where you will find standing in a place of Honor, a Honor Roll, a honor roll is a monument with the names of all the local men and women who have served in the military. In South Royalton it is a granite monument with names engraved. My name is there as well as my brother Stew. In Tunbridge there is another, on this is my Dad, Spud Rogers(world war II), my grandfather Nat Rogers,(World War I) and I served in Viet Nam. also in Tunbridge, my father in law, Mark Howe(WW II) and my uncle Calvin Ware(Korea). You can see that our family has always served our country in its time of need. This always makes Memorial Day and the 4th of July a very special time.



In SR the Memorial Day program as I said we on the park , there were poems as Hannah said, someone did the In Flanders Fields, and the Gettesburg Address. The high school bank played and there was a speaker, who talked about the meaning of Memorial Day. For many years the speaker was Jim Lupton, for some time was a minister in Tunbridge and was a veteran who served in Viet Nam. After the SR ceremony was done the band( I carried the bass drum, didn't play) would go to Tunbridge to march in that parade, then on to Chelsea, and finally to Thetford and back home. A very busy day, a lot of marching, and sometimes in the heat. One year, around 1963-64, it was so hot that after all the parades we went swimming. Don't think that will happen this year.



Tunbridge now has the premier Memorial Day celebration. I was lucky enough a couple years ago to be there. They have a program in the town hall prior to the parade that is really good for all to enjoy. The parade is very nice with both sides of the road filled with people from far and near. The SR band still plays, the American Legion color guard is there, Stew marches with the group. The year I was there, there were many old tractors, 4H kids, horses, oxen, and a truck with several WWII veterans, Uncle Cal was one of them that year. The parade ended with the band and color guard stopping at the Cemetery where the customary music and poems were enjoyed. At the end there was the firing of a Civil War Cannon and the realising of white doves and a fly over by members of the Green Mountain Boys of the Vermont National Guard. A very big deal for a town of 600 people. I almost forgot the fire department always have a chicken barbecue that is the best you can find anywhere.



Just a bit more to followup something Hannah wrote, Stew does in fact place an American flag on every veterans grave in every cemetery in SR and Tunbridge. I don't know how many there are but ask Stew,he knows where each one is. This is a project by the American Legion and he has been doing it for several years. I know the Nancy's Dad, Mark used to do the ones in Tunbridge for many years.



Memorial Day is a lot more than parades and poems, it is a day that we need to take a few minutes and think about all the men and women who have paid the ultimate price so that we may live in this country and enjoy the freedoms that we all take for granted. The next time you see a solider, or sailor, thank them, if you have family members who have served, thank them..........

25 May 2008---

Good Morning, this will be a short one but one that I wanted to send. I remembered that I had seen a picture somewhere that I wanted to post, well yesterday I found it and is posted here. Not sure just when this was taken but a few years ago, at Christmas I think. The two young girls here are soon to be graduates of South Royalton High School and Thetford Academy. Ashley and Kate will no longer students but have to go to work or continue with their education. I will have to say that both of these girls are not strangers to work, both have worked hard both in school and at jobs. Even girls have to pay for cars etc. Nancy and I just want to say congratulations to the both of you. I won't be there for the festivities but Nancy will...Good luck to both of you.

Another late night with Den

Well,it's 1:16 AM and I can't sleep, actually about 10:00 I was so cold I couldn't get warm and was shivering and could not stop. Went to bed and fell asleep, but woke up and am feeling better but can't sleep/ This is not fun.

I had planned to write a bit about people in South Royalton when I was growing up. These folks that I will write about were not people I knew real well but they were a bit strange.

First there was Louie Carlye, the spelling is wrong but some of you will know who he was. He was an old man with a long beard and dirty clothes. I don't think he worked but may have done some mowing on the park. He lived in a garage behind Bob Shepards house. There were 9 or 10 garages there and most were used to keep cars or trucks. I'm sure there was no electric or running water there. He was close to being a hermit. We weren't to talk with him and was a bit scary. In another garage, Alton Bullard, a classmate of mime had a old car, I think it was a 49 ford. We would spend hours moving the car back and fourth about 10 feet, strange things we did. Alton and I went into Army together on the buddy system, after basic training I never saw him again for 10 years, so much for the old buddy system.

Many of you know where the Otto Merrill road is, but how many actually remember Otto? Of course I do, he was another of the locals that we were afraid of. About once a week he would walk from his cabin to town, passing by our house. He was a short man, wore high lace up leather boots, wool pants, felt hat and had the biggest black German Shepard that was always with him, thankfully aways on a rope, they were a scary pair.

This is it for tonight, I'm starting to get tired and hopefully go to sleep. We are all well(sort of), we are starting to get smoke for the brush fires on the coast. I'm sure you all have seen this on TV. People do not realize that there are large tracts of land in Florida with not many houses. When Stew was here we drove from Daytona to Ocala through the Ocala National Forest, not many people there and its about 300,000 acres of pine trees. If we don't get some rain its going to get really bad. None is sight, which is bad for the fires but good for the farmers, Watermelons are about ready, when we first moved here there were 50-75 melon farmers in the county, this year there 5 that I know of. No land to grow them, to much development. Sorry I rambled on but that's the way I do this. Good night

MY WINTER WITH STEW

As promised here is my ramblings of four months putting up with my younger brother. First let me say is way fun, most of the time.

This year Stew and Merry bought a house here in Wildwood about four miles from our home. Stew lives in a retirement community (old folks) which he seemed to fit into very well. He really got into shuffleboard, was good at it, but got beat in the park finals but a couple of 85 year olds. Better luck next year.

Stew as you all know has to be doing something and he worked hard fixing up his new place and did a good job, but when that was done, he started on my place. There is always something that needs to be done here. I've written about the living room project which went very well, but there was much more he did. We cut down a couple of trees in the yard. Stew painted all the trim on my house, then he and I replaced some wood that had rotted, replaced a window frame, then more paint. Just before leaving he installed window shutters on my front and side windows and cleaned off the roof one last time . I am starting on my list of things to do next year.

We played golf on friday afternoon, I won all but the last time we played, I thought he needed to go home with good thoughts, so.............It was fun, we really didn't care who won, and after we would go to the house and have supper or at least a snack and an adult beverage or two. Now you know that in all this fun was a steady stream of harassment by Stew. That is something I do not miss. I guess Ted has taken my place in that area. Have fun Fudd.

Sundays were TV days, S & M would come out to the house to watch, basketball, football, golf, NASCAR, and I would grill something for supper. I really like the HD TV I bought but I think I would have saved a lot of money on food and Vodka if I still had the old TV.

I know most of you didn't know Stew bought a car that he left down here, we call it his pimpmobile, as it is a big car. Massive 4 door Olds, loaded, leather power everything. It is my job this summer to go and exercise the pimpmoblile. Actually it is a very nice car and should last him many years, if he can afford the gas.

The winter was great and I find it very rewarding being able to spend that much time with Stew. As I said in an earlier post, we spent a lot of time together growing up and now to be able to do this is like old times .

I look forward to many more winters with Stew and Merry. Merry is usually on my side which really helps when he is on a roll. Until the fall...

Late night with Den

Good evening, its 1:42 AM, can't sleep and there's nothing on TV, maybe this will put me to sleep. Pretty quiet around here, with Stew and Merry gone home, hadn't realized how much fun we had. They'll be back soon.

I said last time that I was going to talk about SR, and My Winter with Stew, tonight it will be SR, not ready to do the Stew Thing.

SR has changed since I was a young boy running the streets all day. In those days the main activity was baseball, no video games, TV, just baseball. The park was our ball field and we played almost everyday in the summer. Even the park was different then, many more trees, and a lot less traffic. Home plate was in an area not far from the Honor Roll, 1st base was the corner of the bandstand. Our field ran north and south, left field included the road and many of the houses around the park were"in play". Like I said there wasn't much traffic. The player varied from day to day but there was always enough for a good game, we played all day or as long as there were players. And the strange thing was nobody in town complained about us using the park for our games. Bet today that would be a problem. Speaking of baseball, Stew and I were a two man team and played the Barnes brothers for hours on end. Ernie and Gordie against Stew and I, what fun we had. Any with a ball was our game. Hours throwing a ball on the roof and fighting to catch it. Basketball in the dining room with a tennis ball, we must have driven mother crazy. Those were the days when everyone knew everybody and everybody watched out for all the local kids and if you did something wrong, your folks knew about it before you got home. I worked, we never really got into any real trouble, minor things that really weren't important. In those days you could go to Frans Store and get an ice cream cone for .05, that was after you hunted down some bottles to take back, .02 for the small ones and 5 for a quart bottle, I'm finally getting tired so will close for tonight. More soon