Angelkeep remained old school. Decoration Day looms, and it’s a far cry between its intent and a reality of today. The former name for Memorial Day seemed to identify the day’s primary purpose and activity. Kinfolk used the day to visit the grave of fallen soldiers, and other family members. Some prayed. Some gave thanks for freedom. Most decorated the graves. Mom used whatever was available, often peony blooms, and with little spare funds, wrapped a Folger’s tin with aluminum foil for the vase.
Does the new version, Memorial Day, really give any meaning to the multitudes? Do the majority even remember? Decoration Day seemed to demand decorating a grave. Memorial Day failed to generate further memory. Primarily it but offered government officials and others yet one more three-day weekend. Memory only garnered a need to pick up additional brats for grilling, not a fallen soldier’s grave visit. Truly a government fail.
Journey back to 1905 and you will find it recorded when Lew Daily Post G.A.R. purchased seven lots in Elm Grove Cemetery to make a permanent burial place for local Civil War soldiers of Wells County. A semi-circle of lots 337-343 in Section C would be completed with a flag staff. In addition the three Civil War soldiers previously buried in the Bluffton Old Cemetery would be moved to the new location as well as two fallen solders buried in the potter’s field. This most certainly meant the Wells County Infirmary’s unmarked grave cemetery southeast of Bluffton.
The original intent for Decoration Day surrounded honoring Civil War soldiers. It seemed a positive government action to change the day for honoring all fallen soldiers, not just those lost in the Civil War. At the time the holiday began, May 30, 1868, the world had not experienced World Wars, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf, 911, well, today the list seemed endless.
Angelkeep will spend Memorial Day thinking of and honoring KIA and deceased veterans. Among those included in a special way will be Gwen’s Cousin Harold, his plane cut in half by a Kamikaze Zero over Iwo Jima on his 21st birthday while “softening the island” for landing troops to storm months later. On Decoration Day, the 30th, thoughts will also reflect on Alan’s Great-Great-Grandfather Daniel, twice becoming a Civil War POW survivor.
Aging old school septuagenarians, 70-79 years of age, often struggle with change. Take for instance the shock when this columnist recently returned to Bluffton from Ouabache State Park via Elm Grove Road and noticed a large empty hole at the southwest corner of the cemetery. The hole was not a ground hole, as in a grave, but a space now void of the Elm Grove caretaker’s residence. It once contained interesting wall features made of large smooth stones. Angelkeep would have tried to preserve a rock memento had the demolition plans been known.
Angelkeep’s WWI veteran, Grandpa Bob, served as Elm Grove Cemetery caretaker for a number of years. His oldest daughter, a.k.a. “Mom,” spent many of her educational years in Poplar Grove School, ending with a Bluffton High School graduation, due to living in the home which was now but a ghost of Elm Grove Cemetery’s edge. Caretaker Grandpa and Grandma were buried in Elm Grove. Did they turn over due to their former home’s destruction?
Mom was buried in Elm Grove too, exactly across at the east edge of the burial ground from where she once lived. She was the daughter of a World War I veteran who married a WWII soldier and birthed her first child while he was away at war in the Pacific. Mom’s only daughter, Kay, that very first born, would repeat by birthing her first born during her husband’s service in Vietnam. Mom learned to take life’s bumps in stride. Surely she felt glad for her eternal rest after raising six, the last five being boys. Mom would not have turned over when the wrecking ball struck her former home. She simply and peacefully squeezed Dad’s hand.
This columnist picked up a lot of Mom’s patience characteristic. Although I do have a tendency upon occasion to exhibit an “explosive” emotion. Change that “explosive” word to “expletive” and we’re still good. Mom may have spoken “dern.” Only once. “Tarnation” more likely, softly used.
Soldiers’ spouses deserve remembering on Decoration Day too, at least in thought. Angelkeep’s columnist is not completely old school. Plenty of brats await the Weber charcoal grill.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
