Show wm I 1 AT A PATRIOTS I 1 GRAVE J grandmothers demor lemor lall lal day speech is 5 J by DORA DOBA colt COE p s A wy ADAMSON hart had reached into the depths of her rose sprigged bandbox but just as her ter fingers touched the stiff in the front of her best bonnet her attention was I 1 arrested by a ring at the f front door As though suddenly petrified lit in her stooping position grandmother waited while susan ann her daughter creaked through the passage way leading from the kit kitchen kitchelt cheit at the first words of greeting grandmother straightened with a snap like a jackknife jack knife and an angry color flamed on her cheeks why at marthy ellen what lovely roses did you ever see eee the flowers so handsome as they are this year co come rile right in its dreadful hot aint it 41 seems like I 1 never knowel it to warm up as early as it has this season but then its been awful fine for the flowers tears pears like the roses and lay locks and has just tried Lhoir selves to see who could do the mo most t bloomin bloom ln now a pretty idee dee aint it mrs rayburn that laylock wreath yes lay locks was dicks favorite flower bower ancho and ho set this bush out hissel land and I 1 thought id make adreath lo io tiang eangon on the 06 crosson croshion his tomb stun the expression on grandmother adamsons Adam sone face would have made a rood ad study prom from ablaze a blaze of anger it ft passed through all the stages of horrified scorn to a stony determination the tha development of the conversa lion ifon beyond the paper covered board walls coll collected acted her nebulous chaotic emotions into a stern resolve susan ann was stout and she had grieved all the morning over the long walk to the graveyard As she sank ponderously into a chair she lamented 1 I get heavier on my feet every day I 1 live and the heat beat today la Is just awful on me if mother had bad her heart so set on it I 1 try to go to the cemetery I 1 just know ill be sick she walk up with us mrs rayburn asked well not walk fast s but grandmother with what was almost one movement had bad stooped forward and slipped off liar her congress gaiters at the same time taking from its box her bonnet she slipped a hand through the round handle candle of a little basket and scurried down tile the passageway and out through the back door on the step she delayed just long 1 enough to put on her shoes then with her b est best bonnet carried more carelessly than ever before in its dozen years of use she ahe hurried out through the back pate gate the cemetery was being made bright with flowers when grandmother passed through thaeron thy aron gateway and her face hardened as site she recognized come of 0 the stooping figures and the graves over which they bent at a brilliantly decked mound she stopped and kneeling said bald 1 I hate to do it jeremiah Jer omlah but I 1 know want me to I 1 wont take them to any one else though jeremiah though I 1 know say fur fui me tot to it if you was here but dearie dearle ive kedred fur these things ever sence they was buds jest as aa tender as it if a blen ben babies and jest sos you could have them today to day and I 1 jest cant see any one else have em how would you like to look over these posies and see that laylock wreath a hangin on old dick rayburne ray bums burns tomb stun you fought bled and died almost fur jeremiah when that old copperhead gits jest as many flowers as you do grandmother had turned up the skirt of her black alpaca dress and into the receptacle thus formed had put every flower that had bad lain on Jeremia jeremiahh hs grave sho she carried them all over to a far corner of the cemetery and buried the them under a pile of I 1 last years lea leaves veEr then she went back to the imro baro nituna 6 i soon tile the faraway notes of cover teem over with beautiful F flowers lou vers told that the P ro cessil on was coming grandmother board beard but slid sue did not buco lift her oyes eyes sho she sat directly upon the middle of tile grave her skirts spread as far ns as they would over the flowerless flow orless mound and she was knitting as calmly as it brevort Bh evort seated on a little splint bottomed chair lit in her own room she paid no nc attention lon to the astonished group that 13 topped before her A ahem liem coughed the m master a ster of ceremonies henry blake grandmother looked up How HV dedo aenry 1 then looking down again one two three widen otie one two three turn tum weve come to decorate comrade adamsons grave hesitated ta the 16 puzzled blake comrade adamsons grave dont need no alve six dix narrows narrow one two you balant forgot its decoration day have you questioned the man it if I 1 have ive been the anly one that has A flourish of her needle indicated the flower docked decked mounds but comrade adamson was a hero and he because he was a hero herd Is w why hy I 1 dont want him decor decorated decorates atea the only way to distinguish him from them as aint heroes with a little sweep of her skirts grandmother rose to her feet its jest because jeremiah was kaaa a ver cro 6 that ahat his grave aint go coln in t to 0 be strewed with flowers jest like ilka the bonfa on ts where the babies and copp copperheads copper heads lies the babies might a up to be heroes it if had a hilt but they and theys three hundred and sixty four and a quarter other days in the year to decorate their graves in its almost a insult to io to well this day dont mean no more it used to be set apart that we might honor the nations dead but the day like me and some come of the others here has outlived aur our usefulness nesi and our time let labe it be decoration day it if you want to but dont call it memorial Ale morial day any more its just a holiday for the young faiks folks to have ball games gaidies and picnics and the older folks to put flowered on the graves of their dead jest look through them trees can you tell Is the graveson graves grave of soldiers who fought bled and died for this beautiful country it this day wa was what it was named fur far there be ba a flower in this hull graveyard ex captin on a soldiers grave I 1 reckon its little enough we do even when we set aside a whole day out of a year to them as give their hull bull lives and mighty lives some of ern em was too take your flowers put em on any grave you happen to see it dont matter ahm Is jest decoration day there aint no memorial day no more inore los ang angles angeles les times |