Memorial Day

What in the world has happened to watermelon? Do you remember being a kid at those family picnics when, after eating your fill of hamburgers and hot dogs, someone would inevitably pull out a huge Tupperware container of lukewarm watermelon wedges? The Styrofoam cooler never seemed to keep them cold enough, and they always ended up sitting in a small puddle of watermelon juice that collected at the bottom of the bowl. Everyone, especially the kids, after having a napkin or two foisted on them by a responsible adult, would dig in to those wedges and marvel at how sweet and juicy they were.

Memorial Day proved to be a memorable weekend for coach Anthony McDonnell and his Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County U12 Classic II girls soccer team, the Celtics. The Celtics won the 36th annual Virginian Memorial Day Soccer Tournament by beating the Alexandria Revolution White team, 2-0, in the finals. The tournament provides a venue for more than 600 boys and girls soccer teams with players 9-19 years old to compete. The teams came from several states including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia as well as Washington, D.C. and Canada.

Kenny Driscoll asked Patty, his wife, to hand him his crutches. He didn't like what he was seeing and wanted to get out of his truck and take action. Mr. Driscoll is a retired Baltimore police detective who in 2002 lost the use of his left leg after tumbling down a ravine in North Baltimore while chasing a carjack suspect. Every Memorial Day, he and his wife visit his wife's uncle's grave in Oak Lawn Cemetery on Eastern Avenue. Charles Leroy Parker, known to everyone by his middle name, died four years ago. He was a Marine veteran who had served two tours in Vietnam.

The VFW Post 8185 conducted Memorial Day Services at two locations Sunday. Post Commander D. Harvey Cunningham conducted both services, first at Harmony Chapel's cemetery on Dr. Jack Road at 10 a.m. and then at Memorial Plaza at 11 a.m. Wreaths were laid by Terry Heaton and Bruce Edwards for the VFW and by representatives of the Men's Auxiliary and the Ladies Auxiliary. The 29th Division Association provided an honor guard that performed a 21-gun salute. The Civil War group, Snow's Battery, provided a color guard for the services.

Praise God and all the construction workers on the Hatem Bridge. After three years of one-lane back-ups every night as I left Havre de Grace and headed home to Port Deposit, last week, in the middle of the bridge, two lanes opened up and it was heavenly. The next day, it was clear sailing all the way on two eastbound lanes. Hooray!! Water Witch Fire Company's annual Firemen's Carnival is running all week through Saturday on the grounds of Woodlawn Station, off Jacob Tome Highway.

On a bright and warm Memorial Day, hundreds of current military personnel and veterans, their families, and members of the public gathered at a green cemetery expanse to mark the deaths of nine service members killed since last May in Iraq and Afghanistan. During a somber ceremony at the Circle of the Immortals in Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium that included bagpipers, a military band and a 21-gun salute, the crowd learned about the lives and passions of the nine men, who hailed from Baltimore, Frederick, Waldorf and Hagerstown, among other parts of Maryland.

The annual Monday morning ceremony in Arbutus honoring America's veterans lasted less than 30 minutes. But for some in the small crowd that gathered May 30 near the flag pole at the intersection of Oregon and Carville avenues with Sulphur Spring Road, the service took them back years. "I think about all the boys we lost over there," said Nick Brocato, who served in World War II and is a 15-year member of American Legion Dewey Lowman Post 109 that sponsored the event. That sense of loss was shared by Arbutus resident Steve Thaxter, who has attended the event every year since moving to his home on Carville Avenue in 2004.

The infestation has only just begun. There were only a few of them on Ocean City's boardwalk Thursday night, but within a week, the incident reports will start to spike, and so will the alcohol citations for minors. Buses will become crowded again. Traffic will swell with unreliable drivers. The June bugs will have arrived. An average of 4 million people come to this resort town every year — an estimated 200,000-250,000 this past Memorial Day weekend — but the crowd that local businesses and the town brace themselves for are the graduating high school seniors who, in a ritual exercise in excess, take over for several weeks in June.

Full of vim, vigor and perhaps a beverage or two, you roll out the barbecue grill for a Memorial Day cookout, but then something unfortunate occurs and you suddenly have unexpected visitors at your home: members of the local fire department. The scenario happens more frequently that we care to admit. One national study pegged the average number of fires involving grills, hibachis and barbecues that summoned firefighters at 7,700 a year. These fires caused an estimated $70 million in property damage.

Ask children what Memorial Day means to them and they'll frequently say: "That's the day that the pools open. " Yet no other observance in America is more somber: It is the day we remember our war dead, pay homage to their sacrifice and courage, and recall the selflessness that embodies military service. Memorial Day also honors the families of the fallen: the mother who hears her child's 21-gun salute; the husband or wife who receives a folded flag; the young son or daughter who knows mom or dad only from a photograph.