Tuesday, May 29, 2007

After Memorial Day, May 2007


Other than a photo in a newspaper, I've never seen a National Cemetery decorated for Memorial Day.

Yesterday (Memorial Day) we discovered you couldn't get within miles of the Cemetery. The crowds here in San Diego had the narrow single access road along the ridge of Point Loma - a total stand still, a parking lot that barely moved. We abandonded the try.

I headed back to the Cemetery early the next morning and found myself completely alone with graves as far as I could see. Over the acres and acres of gently rolling fields, every grave was marked with a single small American flag.



Within an hour workers started the long walk, pulling up flags. Thomas told me there are 90,000 graves/90,000 flags and though it will take hours for his crew to pick them up, there are so many volunteers (mainly Boy and Girl Scouts), that all 90,000 are placed right before Memorial Day in 45 minutes!