Our Memorial Day tradition was to go to Bakersfield and put flowers on our Patton grandparents' graves. We liked running through the cemetery and being the first one to find the graves. My dad always clipped the grass around the markers and cleaned them with Glass Wax (incidentally, they don't make Glass Wax anymore but you can buy it on eBay--go figure). We loved stopping at Dewars on the way home for ice cream. I usually ordered a "black & white" which was vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped marshmallow with nuts on top. Sometimes we would take ice cream home with us! They had these insulated bags that would keep the ice cream cold until we got home.
I dug up these two photos from the good old days. That's me with John in 1965; those gladiolas were from our garden. The other picture was taken in probably 1968 or 1969 and I think that's my dad in the background cleaning the grave markers.
Today I celebrated Memorial Day hiking part way up Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire.
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