HEAR: “TEN HUT!”
SEE: aged, war-injured and arthritis-ridden military veterans immediately snap their stooped bodies to a seemingly unattainable erect posture
HEAR: the local scout troops lead the townspeople in the singing of "God Bless America,”
SEE: a young, freshly scrubbed boy with a crooked, self-combed part in his still-wet head of hair, holding just-picked flowers to place on a loved one’s grave
HEAR: junior high school kids’ drum & bugle corp, all seven of them, strike up their instruments
SEE: the beginning of the cadenced march to the cemetery, with elderly veterans riding in an open trailer, with younger vets marching beside, and with townsfolk walking behind
HEAR: 21 gun salute,
SEE: just tossed flowers floating down a river, dropped in honor of those buried at sea
HEAR: “Taps,” at the town cemetery
SEE: me, weeping with national pride as a tiny heartland town remembers those who gave their lives...
Memorial Day, Mt. Carroll, IL
