One thing about being back east: you began to watch the weather and talk about it all the time.
We are catching up with our storm.
I spotted this home with beautiful azaleas blooming in front, but I was really more interested in the clouds.
Wheat is growing here and is about a foot high. I'm wondering why that is, when so many of the other crops look like they are just starting to grow.
We are seeing large floral arrangements in every cemetery we pass which is quite a few. There are a lot of little towns along here, right by the road, and each one has a cemetery next to it. And there are big cascading sprays of flowers being sold by the roadside next to the gas station.
Then I spotted a sign that said, "Decoration Day May 5". So we started talking --- what is decoration day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, etc. ? And I realized that this was Confederate Memorial Day in the South.
This is a holiday officially observed in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
It was started in 1866 in Columbus, Georgia, when the Ladies
Auxiliary Association of Columbus passed a resolution to set aside one day
annually to memorialize the Confederate dead. They wrote a letter inviting the ladies in every Southern state to do the same. April 26 was chosen because it
was the first anniversary of
Confederate General Johnston’s final surrender to General Sherman at Bennett
Place, NC. For many in the South
that marked the official end of the Civil War. For some, it was Stonewall Jackson’s death. Some opted for Jefferson Davis’
birthday, June 3.
I remember working in North Carolina while John was
stationed at Fort Bragg. His Uncle
Bill came with his family to visit us on Memorial Day weekend. I had to work on Monday, because I had
already had off May 10, Confederate Memorial Day. We are thinking that it is now just a day to remember all of those who passed away, but it does have a different meaning here in the Southern states.
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