Memorial Day

One of the things which drew me to this little town in northwestern USA, is that it had a memory. Not much of one anymore, but once it did and evidences still exist of that memory. When World War I broke out, an unbelievable 1,438 children of this town would die ... about 10% of the population! There are no numbers for how many were sent, just how many died. That loss had a huge impact on this area.

They ran a series of plantings - 1,438 Dutch Elm trees for twelve miles to Seattle on a memorial drive. Mid-point on the drive is a wall erected to memorialize those lost, all of the names originally on brass plaques, but now in plastic because the drug addicts of the area can not resist selling the plaques to the brass recyclers! And, the brass recyclers can not resist the profits of public theft ..... Today, there are no survivors of World War I, lost to the passage of time. But, the horror what they faced still exists in photographs and in print.

This photo of today, is attended by the town's only survivor from World War II. Yeah, time marches on and soon, even they will all be gone and we will have generations then with no memory what so ever. And I dare say, no honor either.

Search out a veteran in your area and just take a few moments of your time to thank them for what they sacrificed ... I will be hunting down little Tony, the beggar I see occasionally on the streets - rather innocently screwed over by life and left to fend for himself almost penniless.  He was in most of the heavy Pacific battles in WWII and this is the honor awarded him ...