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Memphis, TN - Well, I got the web site done on time last week, then something happened to the email to notify you. Although I continue to preach that you don't have to have an email to go to the sight, by Wednesday of last week only 160 people had viewed the page - as opposed to the normal 350. So I sent our another email. One more time, you can always find the site without an email from me saying it is there by just going to www.leestraveller.com. Please include your class year with your e-mails.
According to Wikipedia, Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 25 in 2009). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the civil war), it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action.While I personally celebrate Memorial Day, it has never been as big a day to celebrate as Veteran's Day, but it is more important in many people's view. While I see Veteran's Day as a tribute to all veteran's, Memorial Day was established to commemorate those who died while in the military service. I have known way too many in that category to forget them.This Memorial Day, I think I would like to remember it under the old name - Decoration Day. I think that has a special meaning for those of us who grew up with country relatives. To them, Decoration Day, was a day of celebration and a time of work. I remember that Decoration Day was not only a day that people put flowers on graves, but was also a time when all the families of the ones buried there would meet and spend the day helping clean up the cemetery. In many places people brought food and had "pot-luck" lunches there at the cemetery. These were places that were lucky to have someone cut the grass, and the idea of someone actually taking care of the place full time was rare. Unlike corporate cemeteries run for profit by some big name coorporation, these were family cemeteries on land someone usually donated next to the family church. My Towery line is buried in such a place - Pleasant Hill Cemetery near Fayetteville.I have been interested in genealogy for quite a while now, and have recently found a couple of web sites I'd like to share with you. One of them is www.findagrave.com. Don't get suckered in by the banner ad at the top of the page, just go down on the right hand side and click on the place labeled " • Search 33 million grave records" Sue and I have been involved with this site since retirement. One feature of findagrave is the ability to go and request a photo of a marker in a cemetery in another part of the country. If you volunteer as a photographer, you will be sent requests now and then for a photo of a marker near you. We go take the photo and then post it on findagrave. Another is www.va.gov which has a place to search for burial information on veterans. I am not sure who populates the database, for it is missing a lot of people I know who are veterans and buried, but it is still a good resource for some.I could not let Memorial Day pass without honoring the only known member of the Lee High School Classes of '64-'65-'66 who died on active duty with the United States military. Capt. Dennis Faber,Class of '65 was killed in an Air Force C-130 plane crash. In an earlier issue we were informed that the following members of the Class of '67 also gave their lives in service to this country.Many other veteran classmates have left our ranks, but not while on active duty.Lest we forger!
LakewoodDunnavant'sTrip to NormandyLooking for ContactDunnavant'sUh huh...always liked the old dirt road. It's come to symbolize a path rarely taken. A dirt road is nothing less than a metaphor of our tenuous relationship to nature. Uh huh. See how smart I am. Right. But if you've ever known a real cowpoke from the old school, or a farmer whose had to scrapple a living off the land, his face fissured from the sun, his hands calloused from a lifetime of real labor few Americans know; they are the folks who know about the dirt roads. They'll tell you it ain't the dirt roads that built the American character, but a steady hand and a sure compass and one more thing, imagination. Imagination don't just mean mak'in up stories. Imagination means being able to stand in that farmer's shoes, or anyone else's, and see the world as they see it. Now follows empathy, but ain't too many that can reach that far, so imagination will have to be a good start. Imagination also means not imposing your will on others. It also means maybe we might not be "God's greatest gift" to the planet. It also means maybe "manifest destiny" was a lot a hooey and maybe some of us were, and still are, daahh, brainwashed.I recently ran across a Forbes article that described the cities of the world's "quality of living" standards, laying out the current global rankings, with an additional emphasis on infrastructure. Need I say it ? Not one American city in the top 20. Vancouver, ranking #4, a couple other Canadian cities, were the closest on the North American continent in the top 20. Vienna #1, and three others cities (in Switzerland) in the top 10. Germany, which our country helped rebuild, now has the greatest infrastructure in the world, bar none. This survey, probably the most comprehensive to date, was not just about infrastructure. It covered the whole spectrum of issues wherein Americans are still behind the eight ball : from the arts to education, health care, strength of economy to restrictions on personal freedom and censorship (which Americans are so self-righteously proud of) to feeding the population with accessible, quality grocery outlets. That's right. The whole ball of wax.Not one American city. In the top 20. And just barely sneaking into the top 30. Got that folks ? You still proud ?You know, back in '97, I was privileged to see the greatest Thomas Moran exhibit of paintings ever gathered in one group showing in Washington D.C.'s National Gallery. Oddly enough, the "Dirt Roads" simple photo reminded me of Moran's stunning oils on early Long Island, long before commercial interests plundered the land. The Moran family were English exports, saddled with a long tradition of English and European appreciation of the natural landscape and the nostalgic beckoning of dirt roads and winding pathways. While in Washington, I also made myself a proud card-carrying member of the Library of Congress. You walk into that place, and only a stupid, unimaginative man would not be emotionally overwhelmed.Oh, I get Mr. Harvey's point. What I don't like and always treat with suspicion is our popular, borderline-obsessive preoccupation of waxing nostalgic while not letting facts get in the way.Those "dirt roads" were not made for bear droppings or deer. The measure of a road is the stamp and hallmark of a growing civilization.Dirt roads what you want to go back to folks? Like that idea, huh? Easy to wax metaphor, ain't it ?. Living it is a separate reality; ain't got noth'in to do with our comfy intellect.As a country, we need to decide the quality of road we're going to make for the future. We need to get beyond the dirt road.Now I will release ya'll from the agony of my preaching. (Tommy only publishes me when he runs out of material. Remember : more-of-yunses = less-a-me...you go slack, I'm a gonna write !)And, now I can get to my November dinner invitations to those commie Mercer/Forbes surveyors who left out Edinburgh from the top 50 in their survey !! - Sir James. '67
