Memorial Day, 2021

 Our terrible storms on Lake Erie have cleared out (Port Clinton was in a state of emergency) and the holiday to memorialize the fallen heroes of our wars has appeared warm and sunny.

I walked to the Wellness Center on Sixth St. (about a mile) and then spent 3 miles on the exercycle.  The cycle had been moved (and maybe replaced, not sure) to a different window, so I couldn't see the pool.  However, I did see the small woods and open lot, and had the fun of watching a young deer nibbling tender shoots for breakfast.  I walked back home through the woods and Seventh Street rather than walk along the lake, the lakefront still being strewn with debris from the storm.  So I had five miles in before 8 a.m.

Then at 10:30 I went to the Memorial Day event on the lawn in front of the pavilion, and enjoyed it immensely.  We are usually not in Lakeside on this holiday, and I found the small town atmosphere with a mayor and city council (from Marblehead), and locals telling about the service of their fathers in WWII quite moving. One man's father had been in the Philippines waiting for the invasion of Japan, when the bomb was dropped.  He said there was much rejoicing--something we don't often hear about that terrible loss of Japanese people, yet it did save thousands of American lives. One woman told of her own father whose 4 year enlistment was up on December 8, 1941, so he was commanded to remain another 4 years. She was born after he returned after the war.  Bob Grim, head of the Lakeside Board also told of visiting Normandy with a 95 year old veteran who had been there when he was 19 years old. 

I sat next to a woman, my age or older, whose name was Nancy.  It was her first time in Lakeside and she was quite charmed by it all.

I took me back over 75 years, probably a year or so after WWII to the Memorial Day service in Mt. Morris.  The rifle salute scared me then as much as today, but I knew my Dad was home. I also thought about Uncle Clare, killed in 1944 in China and how my mom and grandparents grieved. Collecting My Thoughts: Remembering Uncle Clare on Memorial Day