Saturday, May 26, 2007

Memorial Day

Well, race fans, get ready for the "greatest spectacle in racing!" I am not a huge race fan. Oh, I like the hubbub of the prerace fanfare, but after the first lap, it's pretty boring until the last lap. I hate watching it on TV. I was raised listening to it on the radio. Somethings should never change. We all will miss hearing Jim Nabors sing, "Back Home Again in Indiana." The fans will be singing it this year. Jim will be there via satelite from Hawaii.
Tilly has been preparing flower arrangements to take to family gravesites. She always has done the arranging, and has again outdone herself creating a beautiful arrangement for my parents grave. We also put flowers on our son's grave. He never got to come home with us, dying during the birth process. We do it as a form of respect and remembrance.
At this time of year, I remember the two good friends I lost in Vietnam. I wonder what their lives would have been if they had come home. I also remember my best friend Dave, who many years ago rode his snowmobile out onto the ice of a large Area 52 lake on New Years Eve, and went thru the ice and was never seen again.
I remember with love all of the grandparents who had a part in my younger life, and the memories that they left behind.
Of course, I recall all the good times and bad that I had growing up, and the two wonderful parents I was blessed with. My dad died at age 53, so I didn't really have enough time with him. Mom lived to be 76, and knew our children and her only great-grandchild. She was taken away from us too soon. Tilly's dad passed several years ago, leaving a hole in our lives that we wish we had been able to fill in a little more.
So, aside from all the commercial rapture of the "Indy 500" let us continue to remember and honor those who have gone on before us.

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