[Hark]

Solvegas, thanks for posting this...and as a fellow veteran, thanks for your service, too.

I was in the Army (95-00), then the AF Res (02-05), and it seems like as the years go, the people that actually bother to 'thank' the veterans, are the ones that wish we would bomb the living crap out of everyone not like them, and I have to stop myself from lashing out at such rubbish.

Thanking a vet just doesn't seem to have the same effect it used to.   

[Zorro]

Zorro, having a number of pictures of my father at about that age, it is clear to me that the obsession with having children smile in photos is a fairly recent development.

BTW, great colorizing job. Yours?

Yes, I did the colorizing of that picture. It was one of my early attempts with Paint Shop Pro.

[rtpoe]

My pet peeve is people who confuse Memorial Day and Veteran's Day.

The latter is for those who served and made it back; the former is for those who served and didn't.

And let us also remember those who have died in service during peacetime; just because there's no war on doesn't mean you are not defending our nation's honor.

[mcgarp]

I haven't served a minute in the military.  I honestly give a real and sincere Thank You to those of you on here, and not on here, that have served.  I agree completly agree with solve.  I just never thought about it before.  I'm a bit over 30 and remember Memorial day always being like this, all happy and such.  I think that's why I never thought about, I was just used to it.  I will keep this in mind.  Again, Thank You!

[NAFOD]

A little late to the party, but I noticed this year was the first Memorial Day since I got out of the Navy (12 years, then RIF'd out) and this year I did a lot more sitting and thinking of friends who have died in the line of duty over the course of my time in.

It was odd, because when I was in, it was looked forward to mostly because it was one of the few weekends they wouldn't screw with unless really important stuff was happening.

Funny how perspective changes as you get older/more experienced.

I didn't do much in the way of a BBQ or anything, but I did talk with a friend's widow.

[tommyboyddd]

Yeah, it's a bit like wishing people a happy Good Friday.  It might be well-meaning, but it comes off as spectacularly clueless.

[SamV]

What's the problem?

Wishing someone a "Happy Memorial Day" isn't as bad as telling them to have a "Merry Memorial Day".

And besides, at least the HMD greeting isn't as much of a tongue twister as MMD is.  

[Zorro]

First of all I want to apologize for that picture of my father taken in 1924. In the spirit of the occasion I forgot that even an old picture of a ch1ld is not allowed here at the BEA.

This year I might stay at home and I might cook a few hamburgers and/or hot dogs.

Having to use a city bus for my transportation sucks!

I realize that the actual holiday is tomorrow, but I just want to relax and work on morphs that day.

I grabbed this picture from a social website that another user posted.

[DruulEmpire]

Just remember, Z-man, I'm a non-driver, so I'm stuck with buses my whole life long -- and in Pittsburgh!

I'm always struck by the Vietnam memorial (this one we finally settled on).  There is a simple dignified power in the naming of the dead, in the fact that an army is comprised of individual lives.  Perhaps in some future century the leaders of nation-states will at long last feel the true weight of that.  Sadly, this century's already been shot.

[luvdemwhoppers]

lee greenwood,  you know the song.

[solvegas]

Well, another Memorial Day where I have to listen on the radio or TV the stupid " Happy Memorial Day ! " or " Memorial Day sale ! " idiocy. Yea, I'm a fuddydaddy I guess but I don't care, it's still a free country. The weather is exceptional today to partake in outdoor activities. After I go to the local Veteran's cemetery in Boulder City, where I already have a spot when the time comes for me to depart this world, and pay my respects, I will go out with my friends from work and BBQ. Most of the personnel which work in our Security department at the Luxor are either retired police, retired military or have prior service so it's not difficult for us to congregate and tell sea stories ( if you were Navy or Marine Corps ) and do what most guys do best, swap lies.  We will of course solve all of the world's problems, bitch about anything ( a bitching sailor is a happy sailor ) and drink some cerveza. Next year we will do the same. 

[TheZookie007]

I found out that by law we all have to have a moment of silence at 3 pm on Memorial Day. It's a law that would be very hard to enforce, I know, but I think it helps serve as an antidote to the hyper-commercialization of the day.

[pedonbio]

Below is a photo of the earliest federally-recognized Memorial Day observation, May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina. A group of freed slaves held a ceremony honoring 257 Union soldiers, prisoners of war, killed by the Confederate Army and buried in a mass grave. The freed Blacks undertook to exhume and identify the remains for re-burial.

My paternal great-grandfather was the only member of the family to meet the constitutional definition of a traitor, serving under Gen. Kirby-Smith of the Trans-Mississippi Department.

Look at the picture closely, and you will notice that the group is saluting the flag the original way, not the pantywaist "hand over heart" shit introduced in 1943.

[gOOber]

^
Interesting, that`s also the salute of the Roman Empire.

[pedonbio]

^
Interesting, that`s also the salute of the Roman Empire.

Indeed. Much more a demonstration of loyalty than a "Where's my wallet?" gesture.