Memorial Day

We are truly grateful for the service and sacrifices of the soldiers and families who have served to protect our country.  This little Mid-America town we are living in had a (what seems to be an annual event) parade and ceremony to remember on Memorial Day.  It was a neat event.  It was great to hear the veterans speak and experience this new experience for us.  We had never been to an event like this on Memorial Day.  It was a great way to start the day.

Friends of ours invited us to join them.  We wouldn't have known about if they hadn't.  It seems that most things, events, protocols, goings on around here - probably like most small towns - are all known by everyone.  Not much is advertised or online, you just know about it.  Well we don't know about it, but everyone else seems to :).  Most people have lived here all or most of their lives and they just know.  Thankfully, we have friends who are helping educate us :).  

The ceremony took place at the town's cemetery that I also had never been to or knew was there.  

It is a beautiful cemetery with a lot of history.

 Band, Speakers on stage (mayor and veterans).  

The veterans in front of me did a gun fire/salute at the end.

People walking out after ceremony

We walked around the cemetery and explored all the historical gravestones

 Sutton and Kerrigan on a statue dedicated in memory of all deceased soldiers, sailors and marines.

 Kerrigan wanted me to take this picture of her with the flag :)

The gang

The cemetery is really pretty big compared to any others we've seen around here

 There were some very old gravestones from as far back as the late 1700s.  These were from the mid 1800s

 Another really old gravestone (1857).  And the one in background is for a man that fought in the Civil War.  It was neat that small American flags were placed near gravestones of servicemen.

There was even a Sauder, but we didn't recognize the names

 This must have been a prominent family.  There is a Denhart Baking Company in town.  

 This family, too, maybe.  There is a street near us named after them.  The first stone states that that person was born in 1795.

 We then walked around downtown.  It took all of 5 minutes :).  This is pretty much it.

 In memory of our soldiers 1861-1866

And the big 'claim to fame' - Lincoln spoke here.