If you are planning a trip to visit family this Memorial Day, why not attend a Memorial Day parade or other activity in the local area that you will be visiting. Local communities offer many unique ways to remember those who gave their lives for our country. You may be surprised by what you find when you look into what activities are planned for the place that you are visiting.
For example, today I learned about a Memorial Day event that is scheduled for my local community which really took me by surprise. The event is being held in honor of the brave men that lost their lives in a World War II plane crash in the town where I live. That’s right – a military plane crash landed in this little Vermont town during World War II. On Sunday, June 27, 1943, a B-17 carrying a ten-man crew crashed on Fish Hill in Randolph. Seven of the men survived, and three were killed in the crash.
I cannot help but imagine how the crash affected the lives of the people that were living in town at the time that it happened. Randolph is a big town these days, by Vermont standards, but it was a lot smaller during the 1940’s. News of the crash spread through town quickly, and families that have lived in the area for a long time have been sharing stories about the event for years and continue to pay their respects to the men who lost their lives by remembering the crash each Memorial Day. There may be similar stories and similar events in locations where you will be visiting this Memorial Day. Even if your relatives were not directly involved in serving our country, they may have stories to tell about how their community was affected by war.
Photo by duboix on morguefile.com.