(S8) - PT 2 - Memorial Day

[Renrut]

As someone whose family has lost multiple loved ones and friends in the Wars that America has participated in, my family always tries to get together on Memorial Day and go visit the graves of those that have given the ultimate sacrifice to this country. In our moment of silence we remember and reflect on the memories we have of them and all the good times we will have when we see them again. It is a sombering experience, one I will never be comfortable with. I am not saying that it irritates me or anything like that, far from it, but rather it is something I will never truly get used to. We have Doing this my entire life and I break down each and every year. My great grandfather, my grandfather on my dads side, my cousin, and two of my very good friends in life gave theirs for this country so that I could enjoy the freedoms that make this country great. After we visit the graves, we travel back to my grandmothers for some comfort food and just some more reflection on our fallen family members. When we were young this was a day to get Together and have fun with each other, but As my cousins and myself grow older we tend to not enjoy this day to have fun, but rather it has humbled us and just makes us appreciate everything and everyone in our lives so much more.

[Leafs4ever]

Memorial Day is special holiday where everyone stands united to honour our fallen soldiers. While one day isn't enough to show our appreciation, it's a good thing that we all come together to acknowledge the ultimate sacrifice those soldiers made in the name of freedom.

On Memorial Day, my family and I head down to the Legion where we can remember the fallen alongside veterans. It's truly special to be able to talk to the ones still here about their experiences at war. They know better than anyone the efforts of their fellow soldiers. We share a meal with them, let them share their stories, and just let them know that they are appreciated.

After our visit to the veterans, we head home for a classic Memorial Day BBQ. Those soldiers who lost their life in battle fought for us to be able to live like we do and we feel that it's best to show them what their sacrifice accomplished. We have a BBQ and get together with friends and family because they fought for us to be able to. We fire up some burgers and hot dogs, crack open a couple of cold ones, and cheers to every single man and woman who laid down their lives for our freedom. Those are the true heroes in this world and we have to make sure their sacrifice never goes unnoticed.

(231 words)

[YoungTB]

Marquise Brown woke up at 5 AM on the dot and started the day like any other one; by taking a cold shower and heading to the Marshals practice facility. It’s there that he would spend about 3 hours performing various drills and practices to make sure he was up to speed before the preseason and regular season began. When he left the facility, it was about 8:30. He didn’t really have anything to do, so he decided to just chill at home. While driving back to his new house just outside of the city of San Antonio, Texas, he passed by a large crowd of people lining the sidewalk. The American flag, the colors of red, white, and blue, and a general feeling of happiness came with them. Marquise has now just realized today was Memorial Day. That was probably why the security guard for the practice facility, Todd, wasn’t at the facility today. With nothing better to do, Marquise decided to park his car at the parking garage and go and watch the parade. He had just taken a shower back at the facility and changed into a decent set of clothes, so he didn’t look like a total bum. Marquise stood towards the back of the crowd, observing all of the proud Americans eager for the parade to start. Some elderly men and women were wearing U.S. Army Veteran hats, so Marquise decided to greet them and thank them for their service to their country. Once he was done thanking them, the parade began. Marching soldiers flooded the streets, followed by old cars and even a convertible with the mayor of San Antonio in it. The parade went on for about a half an hour. Afterwards, the crowd started to slowly disperse. Marquise decided to head back home. He felt like a better American after having watched the parade and recognizing Memorial Day.

[316 words, Happy Memorial Day everyone]

[Toasty]

Mason Brown flew back to to his home town of Comfrey Minnesota, Fun fact: half of the town are veterans. Mason has a long line of veterans in his family. Mason lead the parade holding the flag with 3 of his high school buddies each in every corner. When Mason got to the end of the parade he ran back to the back of the parade to jump on a John Green Gator which pulled a float honoring 3 kids who died defending the Red, White, and Blue. When the parade ended Mason held a charity baseball game where all of the money made at the game, concessions and all because Mason would write a check to the ball park to cover the concessions and entry fees so they could split the check between the three families, went to the 3 families who lost their kids to the war. At the end of it he sign autographs for his fans at the game. And then he went and play some three on three basketball with his old buddies. Then out of no where Comfrey's up and coming running back came up to Mason and said that there was a football game going on at the football field and asked if he wanted to join. Mason said sure. When Mason got to the game. They split teams and Mason realized how out of shape he was and vowed to return when he got in more into shape and wouldn't get beat again by the shift running back. Mason also vowed to pay $1,000 for every tackle next season, along with $5,000 for every sack to the Wounded Warrior Foundation.

[adam2552]

As a veteran, Memorial Day has recently held a special significance to me. As such, I would like to step out of character her and remember one of my friends who gave his life in service of this country. SSG Jason Reeves was the first person I met when I landed in Germany at my new duty station. He picked me up from the Frankfurt airport in his personally owned vehicle and drove me the three plus hours south towards Hohenfels where I would now be stationed. SSG Reeves was full of energy despite the over six hour round trip he had to make just to pick me up. During the car trip, we talked about a lot of different topics from politics to beer drinking in Germany. It was refreshing to meet someone so outgoing and friendly upon me first setting foot in a foreign country. Through the next couple months he would be my mentor. He showed me around the base and the best places to go off the base. He drove me to my appointments until I was able to buy my own car. And while he outranked me, we still were friends and had a mutual respect for each other. There was a small deployment coming up that an operations group needed just two of our interrogators for. SSG Reeves quickly volunteered for the deployment. As he was preparing for the deployment, I unfortunately saw less and less of him. When he deployed, he had little means of contact back to our base. We would hear from him maybe twice per month. However, on December 5th, 2010 we would hear the worst news. SSG Reeves was killed by a suicide bomber in a market in Gardez, Afghanistan. The other soldier from our unit that was with him was also critically injured, but survived the blast. It was not until he came back and told the story of what happened, that we truly learned of SSG Reeves’s heroism. When the suicide bomber exposed his vest, SSG Reeves hugged the bomber to absorb the majority of the blast. This cost SSG Reeves his life, but saved countless others. He died how he lived, looking out for other people, putting others before himself. He is a true hero and I am lucky to have had the chance to call him my friend.

[iamslm22]

Avon Blocksdale spent memorial day weekend raising money for THON. Being a Penn State Alumn Avon Blocksdale has obvious strong feelings for the school.

For those who do not THON is a 46 hour, no sitting, no sleeping "dance" marathon held at Penn State every year. It is the largest student run charity organization in the world and raises money for kids with cancer through the four diamonds fund. THON is an amazing experience and gets children from all across Pennsylvania to come and get support while they or a sibling are going though the worst experience in his or her life. THON has been around for 45 years and last year raised over ten million dollars for children with cancer.

Blocksdale is currently raising money for the cause by using his newfound celebrity in Baltimore. Blocksdale has been making appearance as various different places, whether it is car dealerships, restaurants, bars or wherever will have him for an appearance fee. Blocksdale always takes the fee and donates it to the four diamonds fund for THON. In addition to making appearances, Blocksdale is known in the Hawks locker room for trying to convince his teammates to donate as well. This Memorial Day weekend has been a truly rewarding Experience for Avon as he gets ready for the season.
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[keanex]

I never really had a Memorial Day tradition, usually working until 3pm or 5pm and then going to a friend's house for beer and barbeque, you know, the same stuff a lot of people do. It's always been too busy down the shore to go there this weekend so I take it easy.

Eight months ago I met my current girlfriend and we've become very very close, and I have become close with her family as well. Well her birthday is May 27, so it falls right around Memorial Day every year. So my new tradition is to spend Memorial Day weekend with my girlfriend.

This year we went into the city to a world-class beer bar and had a few drinks. We then went to a world-class vegetarian restaurant that ended up costing $100 before tax, including a drink, and we got to try 6 small plates of vegetables that filled us up so much that we ended up cutting the night a bit short. I was shocked.

We had a beer afterwards, but mostly took it easy and went to bed early.

We spent Sunday and Monday with her family and time just goes too quick. So that's how I'm going to be spending my Memorial day from now on since I'm positive that she is going to be a part of my life for a long long time.

[TheDangaZone]

Every Memorial day we have a tradition for my fiance's family. We drive down to Orlando and spend time with her extended family while we all sit around and drink and smoke a pig. I'm talking a whole pig, marinated and spiced nice, and then put into a homemade smoker at 2 AM so it's done by that afternoon. While the pig smokes all day we sit around and catch up and learn of the events of the past year for some of the family we haven't seen since then. Once the pig is done we all gather and say a prayer for all of our soldiers fighting around the world and who have served to protect our country. The sacrifice they make for us to be able to sit around and drink and party isn't lost on any of us and we could never make it up to them. Other than that I also make phone calls to all of my family members who have served in the military at some point in their lives. I also have to remember the loved ones we have lost to different wars over the years and honor them as best I can.

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[Beaver]

For Blackford Oakes Memorial Day is a day spent planning because you see the devious, conniving, scheming, dastardly Connor Tanner is on a mission to sabotage Blackford Oakes' football career because when Connor Tanner forced the rest of the Las Vegas Legion [citation needed] to retire Blackford Oakes was the only one who said no and didn't retire and so that stings Connor Tanner to this day and he has made attempt after attempt to force Blackford Oakes out of the league just like he did the other ~TOTALLY ACTIVE AND CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS OF THE LEAGUE~ from the mass retirement and so Blackford Oakes has to be very pro-active in shielding himself from such attempts as well as striking back at Connor Tanner to weaken him so while most people are out in their boats or on the beach or at the lake having barbecue or burgers or hot dogs Blackford Oakes sits in a small dark room with a single lamp surrounded by four or five dozen puppers thinking up ways to defeat Connor Tanner once and for all and end this feud that has plagued his entire career and also on a totally different note Memorial Day marks the first day of his annual West Wing binge (though he usually only watches the first 4 seasons cuz the last 3 are kinda garbo but still awesome but just not as awesome as the first 4).

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237 words

[BWIII]

Memorial Day is one of those holidays that has changed for me over the years. Growing up I didn't really think much of it other than it being an extra day off school, so in that regards it was pretty cool. Even going to Arlington National Cemetery on a class trip didn't help evoke much of any emotion as I was too busy trying to get with this girl I was into. So basically growing up we didn't do anything out of the normal for Memorial Day and it was like any other day on the year. Some years we would bbq and have friends and family over and do that typical type of thing, while other years we'd make the trip over to Safeco Field and catch a Mariners game.

That all kind of changed though about ten years ago. That's about the time that my brother joined the Navy and in the time since had done two tours to Iraq. That definitely made me reflect more on the day and what it means. I think it's one thing, at least for me it was, when it's someone that close to you that you've grown up with practically every day of your life rather than grandparents or older relatives who you're not really close or have never met. Now on Memorial Day I take a little bit more out of my day to show respects, whether it's going out and spending time with vets or even just take some time to say thanks to those that have served and are serving.