Preface: For me celebrating Memorial Day meant traveling to ancestral gravesites.  I loved it.  In my head a created my family tree and tried to record the stories of my ancestors in my head.  They seemed so alived to me.  For me me, four wheelers and boats were far removed from 2nd East and Memorial Day....

For many the last Monday in May has become nothing more than a 3 day weekend to celebrate the beginning of Summer. This "3 day weekend" has created a distraction from the true meaning of the day. Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day to remember and pay tribute to those who have died in the service of our country.

The first observances of Memorial Day date back to post Civil War years as Southerners and Yankees honored their dead by decorating graves of deceased soldiers. While this holiday grew from a division between a country ravaged by war, it later became a day of reconciliation, In 1873 General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic ordered flowers to be placed on both confederate and Union graves in Arlington National Cemetery. However, Waterloo New York was the first to officially recognize the holiday and was recognized by President Lyndon Johnson as the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1966. It wasn’t until after World War I that the holiday united the country and became of day of honor for any and all Americans who fought for freedom and died in so doing. In 1915, poet Moina Michael penned the poem,

"We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grow in fields where valor led,

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies."

It was Moina’s idea to wear the "red poppy" in honor of the dead who died in service to their country. Today, you can find members of the American Legion selling poppies on or around Memorial Day

For those Southern Utahns who have not chosen to go boating, fishing, or camping on the first "3 day weekend" of the summer, it is a day to go and decorate ancestral graves. Graveyards throughout Southern Utah become a field of color on Memorial Day weekend. I was either lucky enough or poor enough to become one such observer. As a child, every Memorial Day we would travel to the Parowan graveyard to decorate the graves of my great grandparents. Afterwards, we would travel to Beaver to do the same as well as raise a flag by the grave of my Great Uncle Ike who served our country in WWII..

With Memorial Day fast approaching, I decided to celebrate it "backwards" this year. I took a day and spent it with my favorite WWII Vetran. My grandfather, Max Dickson Weaver served in the 1669^th division of the Army in both the Liberation of the Phillipines and the Occupation of Japan. Max is the recipient of 2 Gold Stars.

Before it becomes time to place a flag at his grave, I wanted to travel to the Dickson ancestral sites in Richville and Porterville, Utah. We visited the old Dickson homestead where my great grandfather Albert Douglass Dickson served as an LDS bishop for 36 years, we visited the grave of he and his wife Rosella and the graves of my great great great grandparents, Billa and Mary Ann Dickson. It was an amazing moment to stand at that beautiful cemetery amongst the snow capped mountains to honor my kindred dead as well as my grandfather. It made me proud of where I came from and proud to be an American.

Grandpa shared stories from the war and from his growing up years. What history my grandfather has witnessed. To put it in perspective: he rode to school bareback on a pony, in a wagon, on a bob sleigh and then in a 3 pedal car. He has seen the inventions of indoor plumbing, the telephone, the television, the computer, and the internet. My grandfather is a monument of time and place. Like so many Vetrans, he deserves our gratitude and our honor.

In efforts to "return to Memorial Day" try an observance of your own. Visit a local cemetery and place a flag or flowers on the grave of one of America’s fallen heroes. Travel to a nearby memorial and pay tribute there. Fly a U.S. flag half-staff until noon, or participate in the "National Moment of Remembrance" at 3 p.m. Purchase a Red poppy from your local American Legion and wear it on Memorial Day. Whatever the celebration, let us remember those who have kept our freedoms "Alive."

Epilogue:  I treasure this memory with my grandfather.  Last October, he passed away.