A special day

Memorial Day was always a “special” day around our house when I was a child. I remember that wreaths were made or bought, fresh flowers cut, lunches packed along with cold drinks, and we headed off for the cemetery at Fairland, Oklahoma where we would spend the day. The men would clean around the tombstones, cutting the grass and straightening those stones which were tilted. The women would decorate the graves and all of us kids would go through the cemetery looking at the different tombstones. I remember the engraving on one in particular, as it said: Remember friend as you pass by, as you are now so once was I, as I am now you soon shall be, prepare for death and follow me. We would also explore the Indian mounds close by and then retreat to the shade of a mulberry tree and eat mulberries. My folks would set in the shade drinking soda pop and visiting with others who had come to decorate graves. It was a day I will never forget.