It still feels weird

[susandennis]

We did not have Memorial Day growing up. I remember distinctly when I first found out about it. I was a freshman in college an one of the cute boys told me he was having a party at his parents beach house over Memorial Day weekend. I really wanted to go but I had no idea when that was. It was 1967 and I didn't have Wikipedia. It was a stumper.

I grew up in the Southeast. In the 50's, we did not morn or honor Yankees - too soon. Seriously, it was. Amazing now to think about.

I left the south when I went to college and learned a lot of stuff like there were lots of people who had never heard of black eyed peas and pizza was sold everywhere and was delicious and Easter Monday was not a holiday but Memorial Day was. Wow. It was a different country.

Since then I have always lived in places that 'did' Memorial Day but it still feels foreign to me.

Comments

[viridescence13]

I feel like maybe we've talked about this before, but did you observe Decoration Day? I have many memories of trekking up to my grandmother's birthplace in North Carolina, which involved visiting the family grave yard, planting flowers, etc. I think that itself was related to a day celebrated in the South that included cleaning up and decorating the graves of Our Glorious Confederate Dead. ;)

[susandennis]

oh yeah... I don't remember that my family made a big deal of it but I remember studying about it in school.

We get it

[spiritgirl.livejournal.com]

Now we do get Memorial Day... which always confused me with Veterans Day in November (Oh yeah, not everyone is dead on Veterans Day). But we definitely get Martin Luther King Day in January but we don't get President's Day off unless you work in a bank or government. Weird.

Re: We get it

[susandennis]

Yeah somewhere along the way, they made it national I'm totally with you on the veterans day confusion.

My friend in New Zealand calls holidays that are for post office and banks only - faux holidays. Good way to differentiate.

[joyce.livejournal.com]

K through 12 schools here are out today. Universities and community colleges are not. Weirdsauce. I gave my class the day off - I think with the number of vets we have at my school, it'd be shameful not to.

[susandennis]

wow. that is weird and good on you

[joyce.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think a lot of folks around here forget that it's not just about the Indy 500 and sales. Which is weird for a military state, but like you said, it also wasn't part of the state's culture until pretty recently, so.

[machupicchu.livejournal.com]

.
.
So is the company you work for open for business today?
.
.

[susandennis]

Well, yes and no. It never really closes - I mean if there's work to do we do it. Holidays, weekends, whenever. But... I got no work to do so, I'm not doing it.

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

There's no work, so you're not working?! Slacker! :-)

[susandennis]

totally!

i'm still feeling annoyed about the president's day thing

[henare.livejournal.com]

we used to get washington's bday and lincoln's bday and those were consolidated when i was a kid. i feel cheated.

there are a handful of businesses here that take good friday off (not because they're especially religious, but because it's a friday instead of a monday).

it must suck being a parent having small children who don't have the same holiday schedule as you do. since cats always have the day off it's always good for me.

Re: i'm still feeling annoyed about the president's day thing

[susandennis]

since cats always have the day off it's always good for me.

exactly!!

[blue-eye.livejournal.com]

Interesting post! I grew up in New York City and we always had memorial day.

I have been in Florida for over a year and I am enjoying food I never had up north...black eyed peas, collard greens, okra and tomatoes.

[susandennis]

One of my favorite foods of all times is fried okra. It is a royal bitch to make but ohhh so good. When I was in college my parents moved to Mahattan. We were all home for some holiday or another and told Mom we wanted fried okra. She said that if we could find the okra, she'd fry it up.

She knew she was safe cause we'd never find any. Oh Mom's of little faith. My brother and I set out on a mission. We actually didn't even have to go that far - we found it in the freezer of the second Gristedes we hit!

it was sooooo delicious.

[blue-eye.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh....Gristides!

Where in the city were you?

[susandennis]

I also remember standing in the long line with our four (all they had) boxes of chopped okra - several people quizzed us on what in the heck we were going to do with that strange stuff. It was funny.

They lived in midtown east of 1st ave. This was in the late 60's. They loved it and it was a great place to come home to.