A couple of May 31 memories

A MEMORY A DAY

What was I thinking, that I’d actually get to write one thing a day? I shoulda known better! But here goes a little bit for this – week - - -
May 31. I remember when Memorial Day was on May 31, no matter when Monday was on the calendar. Sometimes I think we’ve lost for making things more convenient, but whatever.
I remember walking and riding in parades. One parade, when I was very young, and it might not even have been Memorial Day, but anyway – it was in Stuyvesant Falls, I’m thinking probably it was the Sunday School classes from the Catholic Church, that’s where we went, and one of my aunt’s was a teacher, she’d have gotten us all into the parade. Anyway, there’s a creek running through the middle of the town, with a fairly high bridge over the little gorge that it goes through after the falls. It was then (might still be) an open grate deck bridge. I was marching along just fine (and I can’t march in step to save my soul, but it didn’t matter then, at least not to me) until I got to that bridge. Got partway across and realized I could look down through the deck and see the rocks and water and falls below me. Well, if I could see them, I could fall through and be there. I froze. No amount of talking got me going and I think someone finally carried me off the bridge. The part I still remember is just standing there looking down at the terrifying sight underneath me, I can still see the rushing water. Still not real fond of that kind of bridge.
When I had horses and we had the 4-H Horse Club, we rode in parades. Our ’uniform’ was blue jeans, white shirts, green bandana and cowboy hat, things everybody had. It was great fun, we would carry the American Flag and a 4-H flag, and always get cheers, of course. Once I had to borrow a hat for some reason, and it was too big – someone took pictures that showed a hat sitting on a set of shoulders.
We must have had picnics, quite possibly at one of the aunt and uncle’s, with lots of cousins there, I remember big picnics, but don’t specifically know if they were for a holiday or the family reunion, we had both.
Spring’s a good time to look ahead, but every day’s a good time to look back, too.
That’s my memory for today, now I gotta get ready for work.