Not Forgotten On Memorial Day

[jonp]

An abandoned cemetery over grown with vines, weeds and trees. Laid to rest far from home. Your service to our Nation is not forgotten

[redhawk0]

I am one who loves to visit old cemeteries. Many times, I'll pick a family that had infant deaths or sometimes I find one that had a man die at a very young age. The young men, when doing some searches of old archives, can be found to have died in a battle or from war related wounds. Living in New England...sometimes these cemeteries go back to the 16-1700's. These are of most interest to me. The old limestone markers are the hardest to read due to the softness of the stone and modern day acid rains (no I'm not "one of those")....But there is something to a wide piece of chalk/charcoal and a big sheet of paper that brings out the legibility of those old markers. Often times I can get a snapshot of the stone when the light hits it from a different angle too.

So many times I find military references for the deceased....I feel a reverence and honor for those graves above the others.

Here is one from such a cemetery in Monroe Forrest, IN. This one caught my attention because the death date was not on the marker.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...enn-r-hamilton



redhawk

[huntinlever]

Thanks for the thread, Jon. Like redhawk I have a special reverence for old gravesites, though no less for the too many fallen of our times. My mom and dad died close together in 1990, and I spent many months in the VT woods just hunting, writing, living primitively, coming to grips with a lot of things. It was my friend's family's land, and they called the large meadows, many containing stones going back to the 1600's, God's Lap.

[jonp]

Thanks for the thread, Jon. Like redhawk I have a special reverence for old gravesites, though no less for the too many fallen of our times. My mom and dad died close together in 1990, and I spent many months in the VT woods just hunting, writing, living primitively, coming to grips with a lot of things. It was my friend's family's land, and they called the large meadows, many containing stones going back to the 1600's, God's Lap.

In the far NE of VT there is a grave on the Upper CT River back in the trees of a Revolutionary War Vet. My Step Father found it on a hillside and every year it gets a flag.

Wife and I have adopted 3 cemeteries here and visit every memorial day to lay flags.



This tiny graveyard behind an abandoned church has only 3 graves of our Vets but they get a flag every year.

[schutzen-jager]

she was born on memorial day in 1946 while her WWII vet father was still serving, guarding German + Italian POW'S at the Raritan arsenal - he passed last year AT 94 - her families military history goes back to the war of 1812, including some with the CSA + texas before it was a state - tomorrow the town is erecting a street sign in his memory under the one honoring her deceased highly decorated Viet Nam vet brother - her grandfather served in France WWi driving the ammunition trains he received the wound medal [ before purple heart award was established ] - she never fails to donate to DAV + buys every poppie she sees being sold by vets -

[pworley1]

Thanks for the post.

[WRideout]

My uncle Homer Rideout was called into service from little Glenpool, Oklahoma during WWII. He was an ambulance driver and served in Europe until VE day. Then his unit was shipped via the Panama Canal to fight in the Pacific Theater. After the war he returned to Glenpool, where he became a family man, and worked at rebuilding automobile engines until his retirement. He is gone now; I regret that I didn't know him better when he was alive. He was a true hero, but humble as the day is long. His story, and others from my family kept me in the service the twenty years that I served. I will never be a war hero; those days are past for me but I can still honor the memory of uncle Homer, cousin Herb, and uncle Francis who all served when it mattered the most.

Wayne