Memories

[pogo]

I left the topic open ended on purpose if any others wanted to chime in. Mine have to do with Labor Day. Just returned from my place of birth many years ago...Hoisington Kansas. Middle America. Hoisington is ten miles due North of Great Bend. We moved to Wichita when I was six years old so my father could complete a degree in Geology at the University of Wichita. Labor Day in Hoisington starts off with a parade down Main street with spectators lining both sides of the street. This years parade was just short of one hour long. It is a typical parade resplendent with high school marching bands, emergency vehicles sounding their sirens to the delight of the young spectators. Candy thrown from floats to kids of all ages. Horses with young and old riders, a detail of mounted soldiers in vintage uniforms from Fort Riley as well as a marching band from Fort Riley. Half a dozen cavelry re-enactors as well as four authentically clad Buffalo Soldiers. Old Cars, classic cars and motorcycles. After the parade most spectators adjourn to family homes to eat and then back to downtown that is blocked off from traffic and has been transformed into a Midway of sorts with rides and games of chance. My family has gone back to Hoisington for this special time over the years to refresh memories of past times when my Grandmother was still alive and her house became the site of a family reunion of sorts. She has been gone many years and now we meet in the small city park and have a pick nic. This years parade seemed to be cathartic for me. Perhaps it was seeing so many people having so much fun and little kids with family having a great time and getting lots of candy after the pandemic over the past year. Seeing the house that my brothers and I lived in, my grandmothers old house and all of those memories of people I knew and got reacquainted with on Labor Day some who are now gone but not forgotten. Visiting the family cemetery plot on a beautiful clear late summer day in Kansas. The slow pace of Labor Day in my birthplace gives me time to reflect on my past and it leaves me content with my present and hopeful of the future. Go Shocks

[WuDrWu]

Love that. Thank you.

[atlwsu]

I am not a veteran nor am I particularly sentimental. However, I stood on Normandy beach on the 75th anniversary of D-day looked up at the cliffs and then out to sea and thought of the 17,18,19 year old young men who who risk their lives to rid the world of the evil that they saw. Not only because of their compassion for the people of France or England or the Netherlands or Poland, but also because of the pure evil that confrontred the world.

Seeing the events of the last month month have made me wonder if anywhere in the world that kind of courage, resolve, endurance, discipline and strength can be found to confront the kinds of evil that still exists.