Memorial Day

Today we dedicated two new monuments outside our church.  We've had a large monument there for several years with the roll call of veterans who served in the Revolution, Civil War, World Wars I and II (that one includes my father).  Today two new monuments were christened for the veterans of the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts.  I have cousins on both of those.

Here is the original monument and people waiting for the ceremony to get started.

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Aidan, amusing himself during the wait.

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My great nephew getting in on the action.

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PB has a beautiful voice so my cousin (our cemetery sextant and organizer of these new monuments) asked her to sing the National Anthem for the event and then to lead the crowd in singing America, The Beautiful afterwards.  We both lament over the fact that the anthem we have was chosen instead of Columbia when Congress made their decision between the two, since Columbia is so much prettier and easier to sing.  But here she is, anyway, with motorcycles and passing cars for background noise.

(Sound to be inserted if YouTube ever finishes uploading the file)

And then here is my little flag bearer.  He really is quite fascinated with flags-he points out every one he sees on the ride home in the afternoons-so he was excited to get one of his own.

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Last, here is a story that just has to be shared.  G was mowing the lawn this week and Aidan plopped himself down on the picnic table to watch.  When I asked what was up, he said, "This is for baseball".  Since he goes to daycare at a high school, I figured he was referring to the mowing that they do on the athletic fields. 

A few minutes passed and he came into the house to get his ball and bat, returning to sit with them on the picnic table and continuing to watch G mow the lawn.  Apparently G had told him that they could practice after the grass was cut.

A few minutes passed and he again came into the house, this time telling me that he wanted to wear his baseball shirt.  I didn't know which one he meant-he has lots of shirts with balls-so I went and grabbed one that I know is a favorite and brought it out.  He gave me that big boy disdainful look and said, "Not that one.  I want to wear my  Bib Papi shirt!"  So he is, without a doubt, pretty well Americanized now.