Taps

This morning's Memorial Day service here in New Albin was well attended and wonderful. Miss B read the Gettysburg Address, and did a beautiful job; very reverent and expressive. And I'm not the only one who thought so; people who weren't related to her felt the same.

Among other things, they honored the gentlemen who are still living who founded the local veterans post in 1946. Seven wonderful old fellows, some still on their own feet, a couple in wheelchairs, a couple with walkers. One struggled to his feet to return the salute offered him. The high school band played a couple of numbers and did quite well (better than usual). Afterward, they played Taps and did a volley at the memorial in the town square and then again out at the city cemetery. After each volley, all the kids in the area dive into the grass; I didn't know what they were doing, but Lil Miss A informed me they get to collect all the shell casings, which they get to keep after the casings are counted and checked to make sure they are no longer live. She got two.

And then Miss B came home and applied online for an Air Force ROTC scholarship in nursing and/or Subsaharan African Studies! It isn't as impulsive as it sounds. She has planned on this for some time, and May is the month to do it, and it suddenly occurred to her that May is nearly over. It didn't hurt that she sat next to Maj. John Colsch, USAF, Ret., whose presentation brought her and me to tears.

We seem to have skipped directly from winter to summer with no springtime. Today it is hot and steamy.

I leave you with some lyrics to Taps, three verses (there are others, but these were read this morning):

Day is done,
gone the sun,
From the hills,
from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well,
safely rest,
God is nigh.

Fades the light;
And afar
Goeth day,
And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well;
Day has gone,
Night is on.

Thanks and praise,
For our days,
'Neath the sun,
Neath the stars,
'Neath the sky,
As we go,
This we know,
God is nigh.