Perfect Small-Town Memorial Day

decked out in stars and stripes!

This year's Memorial Day (yesterday) was picture-perfect.  We live in a small town, and every Memorial Day there is a parade down Main Street.  There are flags waving, bands playing, uniformed officers marching and people clapping.  The parade marches about a mile and a half, so it is not too long, and it ends in a nice park and cemetery.  There people find places to rest in the shade, while keynote speakers talk about honoring Veterans and giving thanks for our troops.  Someone might recite the Gettysburg Address.

Sometimes the weather does not cooperate.  But yesterday it was perfect.

Kara plays the saxophone in the Middle School Band, so she participated last year and this year.  Here are some photos from the day.

Hopefully you had a chance to remember the reason for the day!  Amongst all the varied activities going on mostly to celebrate the "day off," it's good to remember why we GET the day off.

old-timey car

Last year our family toured Pennsylvania, and one of our stops was Gettysburg.  I was probably much more interested than anyone else in the family!  Abraham Lincoln is one of my very favorite presidents, taking on an impossible job in impossible circumstances, and holding our country together through the Civil War in spite of insurmountable odds.

Flag raising ceremony

I memorized Lincoln's Gettysburg Address for our trip.  Here it is, short but profound and heartfelt, still full of meaning after 148 years.

blue skies, little wispy cloud

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Thank you to all our troops!

Spring at last?

Hola!

Well we are finally into May, and I think we could possibly get a spring.  Up here in the Arctic North, Massachusets is slow to recognize the season.

It is easy for ME to recognize the season.  "Spring" means a full calendar!  Juggling transportation needs, who has what car for which appointment, and keeping track of everybody's events in a little box of the calendar  Yes, we still use a physical calendar on the countertop!  Then you can visualize the week, and anyone can see everybody else's commitments as the days progress.

But here is our weekly synopsis.  It's May.  Just to remind you. :)

PARENTS OF SENIORS.  I got a letter in the mail addressed to "Parents of Seniors," outlining the upcoming events and important dates for seniors for the rest of the school year.  I read through it and thought to myself, "Is this for REAL??"  I keet expecting Rod Serling to step out and announce, "In an alternate universe, your child will graduate.  But are you dreaming?  You may never know...unless you take a voyage into the Twilight Zone."

SCOUT CAMPOUT.  Frank is back in scouts again!  He leads a troop...takes a break from it...and then gets asked back in.  Right now he's with the 11-year-old scouts, and Friday he organized a campout for them.  People don't realize what goes into the preparation for those activities unless they have to be the leader.  All the planning and logistics can be pretty overwhelming!

KARA TRACK MEET.  Kara is trying track (as well as soccer) this spring. Last Tuesday she ran the 400 meter run and came in 3rd.  She was also the last leg of the 1600-meter relay team, so she ran another 400-meter as part of the relay team.

DAVID's FELLOWSHIP AWARD.  David found an internship to apply for.  It was pretty involved, just to apply--it was like applying for another university.  2 weeks ago, he got a phone call that the sponsoring companies had reviewed applications, and he was chosen for one of them!  It will be for 10 weeks this summer, at Draper Laboratory in Cambridge.  They arrange the internships to give the students exposure to multiple types of engineering and technology projects.  Thursday we went to the banquet where they presented the students with the awards, and we met representatives from the company.  We think it will be a great opportunity for him.

SAT SUBJECT TESTS.  Teresa is finishing up Chemistry this term, so Saturday she took the Chemistry subject test for the SAT.  Standardized tests are painful for this child!  Ugh.  (I hate to tell her that these tests are not going away.  One at a time, right!)

STOMP.  Then, as a culminating fun event to finish off the week, we went to "STOMP" at a theater in Worcester.  The whole show is amazing percussion, with the performers tapping and beating on anything from barrels to jugs to matchboxes to inner tubes.  They dance and make noise and act out skits...it's pretty funny, and they are all so talented.  You can't help but try to join in.

May sun shine on your patch of the world this week!
Love, Kari :)