I stopped to visit with one of my neighbors last week. Topics of our discussion ranged from baseball to graduation to upcoming family weddings to ‘when is the sun going to shine?’. This past weekend was busy, no doubt. But something else came up in a few conversations last week too. This neighbor takes care of the rural cemetery just down the road from us. It’s a bit of a family affair with someone weed eating while another mows and tends the flowers. In another conversation, one of my colleagues told me he tended to another local cemetery for 19 years, mowing one or three times a month depending on rainfall and making sure stones were cleaned off and visible afterward. So how much does a job like this pay? Those who do it would say it pays in pride, honor and a sense of completed responsibility. Several of us will be heading to the lake, in the field or working livestock to send to pasture. But if you get a chance to attend one of your small-town Memorial Day celebrations in the local cemetery let’s not only remember our veterans who we honor with Decoration Day, but also those who work quietly behind the scenes.

Information about the history of Memorial Day can be found here: http://www.usmemorialday.org/.

Mary Keena
Mary.Keena@ndsu.edu
Extension Specialist / Livestock Environmental Management