Remembering Memorial Day

By Pat Reckart

I want to tell you about Memorial Day in Orlando and the first one I remember. But I’m going to start the story a few years earlier. The year was 1939. I was 5 and my brother Jimmy was 3 and our mom married Ivan Morrison. My step Dad got a job in Akron so we moved out there. Jimmy stayed with Grandma Godfrey. When we got to Akron we stayed with one of mom’s sisters until we could find a place of our own. My sister was born Jan.16 1941 and it was wasn't long until my dad found an apartment. We stayed there for awhile but we had to move. It was so infested with bugs it wasn't a healthy place to live. My dad just happened to find a nice little house for us to live in, and not in the city.
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Left: A crepe paper poppy became a special remembrance of the men who died in the Great War. for more on Orlando's boys in World War I see the January '08 entry The Great War, Through Uncle Zeke's Eyes

Grandma Bridgit Godfrey is to the right.
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My dad got really sick and it wasn't long until mom found out he had cancer. It was November, 1943 when he passed away. Mom had several sisters in Akron and they all told her it would be better for her to move back to W.V. and stay with my grandparents since they were getting up in years. So, they took us to the train station along with my dad’s body and we came back to W.V.
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I can remember Mike Moran met the train and got my dad’s body and then he got it ready for burial. When everything was ready his body was taken to my grandparents' house for the wake. People came in set up all night, I guess that’s what they do with any dead body. I remember I was so scared every time I time I looked at that casket I could see him breathing.
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I know this has nothing to do with Decoration Day, except when the 30th of May came my mom had no money to buy flowers to decorate my dad’s grave, plus all the other families that were buried up on the hill in the Orlando cemetery, overlooking the town.
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This is the view from the Orlando Cemetery, overlooking downtown Orlando.
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My mom was so upset because she had no money to buy flowers. Well, it so happened that a friend had stopped by to check on my grandparents. Well, really she was cousin, Alta (Blake) Bee. When she saw mom was so upset she said, “Now don't you worry. I know just what to do.” She said, “I've been making flowers out of crepe paper and I've lots of paper. Tomorrow I'll just come and spend the day and we can make lots of flowers.”

Left: Alta (Blake) Bee. See Alta's granddaughter Marilyn (Cole) Posey's story in the March '08 entry The Rose and Her Bud

The next morning right after breakfast Alta was there with baskets and baskets of supplies. I wish I could show just how they were made but I can't. I know there were patterns for different flowers such as roses, carnations, lilies and maybe more. I don't remember. They had to go together just right. I know we had a long piece of wire and the petals were placed at different layers and when we had just the right amount we would cut out a leaf and place it on the stem wire with the petals and then we would take little fine wire and wrap around it all so it would stay together. And by the way, Alta got the little fine wire by burning a tire and getting the wire after all the tire had burnt. We really had a nice day learning how to make those crepe paper flowers. Alta said she would be back the next and we would make some more.

We also melted wax and dipped the flowers so the rain would not hurt them. We got some tall tin cans like the used at school for hot lunch, My grandpa took a nail and put holes on either side of the can and then he ran a wire through the holes to make a handle. So, by the time it was the 30th we had lots of flowers, and besides that we picked lots of fresh flowers for the graves.

Crepe paper roses.

As I remember, the 30th was always a big day at our house. We'd never knew who would be at the house for dinner or how many, but we always seemed to have enough. Usually our meal would be baked steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, canned green beans seasoned with bacon and corn and hot biscuits. (My mom could make the best biscuits in the world.) And we always had strawberry shortcake with strawberries from Fred Riffle’s garden. And we always had plenty of Kool-aid for the kids to drink.

See the Sept '07 entry about Fred Riffle's Strawberries

We usually went to the cemetery twice: once in the early morning and then again in the afternoon. I think that was so we'd get to see a lot of friends and relatives. The cemetery was on a steep hill. We always had to walk up there and there always seemed to be people to walk with. So, now you know how we celebrated Decoration Day.




Here is the pattern for the crepe paper daffodill pictured to the left.







2 Comments

Marilyn said...
Thank you so much Pat for that touching story. My grandmother Alta loved to show you her flowers and was quick to want to teach you. For someone reason I just didn't understand all the moving and twisting, so I settled for her making my floweres for me. I had a boquet of those floweres she made me in an old vase in my room. We lost our home along with my beautiful flowers in a devastating fire in 1965. If only I could have the opportunity to watch her ..just one more time. Much love to you Pat for bringing my memories to light again!
9:36 PM

Granny Sue said...
What a story--it's almost a book compressed into a few lines. I cannot imagine what it was like for your mother to go through that, and yet this determined woman managed to get the flowers for his grave. Her story is humbling.
10:00 PM