This holiday weekend we are all so busy with all our plans...barbeques,trips,get togethers,etc.
Stores have big memorial day sales,etc...
But we all tend to forget what the day really is.I'm just as guilty....
But growing up I had a different way of celebrating memorial day.. I have posted this a few times here over the years....
My father who served in WW 11 was part of Gen Clarks 8th army.. a foreign language teacher in the Bronx who was born in Italy but came over to the states at the age of 5...he became part of the AMG...allied military goverment since he spoke Italian...he stayed in italy until 1946 helping the change over of the italian school system...when he came back he taught one year but the UN started...he worked for the UN for 30 years..In 1956 he was assigned to the US Army base at camp darby in Livorno for 10 years....we moved from NY to Italy and thats where the florence cemetary came into my life....
Our elemenatry school on memorial day would take 2 or 3 buses of kids and drive the hour to florence...we would put little flags and I think red poppies in front of the graves..I can remember the 4 or 5 years that i did it...I have more of a memory of the P& J sandwichs at lunch and the warm kool aid our teachers gave us...also never enough sugar in the kool aid...
The graves were so lined up in order...everything was so green....and beautiful...I posted the pictures here a few years ago of the cemetary...
It's so sad that all the tour buses going to florence just pass the cemetary on the autostrada....some of the tour guides will say...'if you look over to the left there is an american cemetary" of WW2... But no one stops.....Over 5,000 US soldiers lay there and get very few vistors.. I'll always remember me standing over a grave and the soldiers names was gonzalez or rodriquez... I would wonder if there family ever came out here to visit him...I was only 8,9 or 10 years old but I have always thought of that....how many of these soldiers who died in Italy ever had there relatives come to pay hommage...
last week I was at the Vietnam Wall Memorial....they have a WW 2 and Korean war one now...pretty powerful....
We have over 4,000 kids already killed in Iraq..lets think about them today for a few minutes between our busy weekend....
A few years ago i posted pictures of the florence american cemetary....but youtube has two beautiful videos.....please watch them..there only 4 minutes and 3 minutes each...watching them brings me right back to 1960,61 or 62...what a great memory to have and treasure...thinking about these soldiers and watching them makes you think....
But need some help..can someone on the next post down load the youtube videos for me and put them below...
Florence american cemetary
American cemetary in Florence
I'm so bad at pasting etc
God bless you all..esp those serving everywhere in the armed services
Stores have big memorial day sales,etc...
But we all tend to forget what the day really is.I'm just as guilty....
But growing up I had a different way of celebrating memorial day.. I have posted this a few times here over the years....
My father who served in WW 11 was part of Gen Clarks 8th army.. a foreign language teacher in the Bronx who was born in Italy but came over to the states at the age of 5...he became part of the AMG...allied military goverment since he spoke Italian...he stayed in italy until 1946 helping the change over of the italian school system...when he came back he taught one year but the UN started...he worked for the UN for 30 years..In 1956 he was assigned to the US Army base at camp darby in Livorno for 10 years....we moved from NY to Italy and thats where the florence cemetary came into my life....
Our elemenatry school on memorial day would take 2 or 3 buses of kids and drive the hour to florence...we would put little flags and I think red poppies in front of the graves..I can remember the 4 or 5 years that i did it...I have more of a memory of the P& J sandwichs at lunch and the warm kool aid our teachers gave us...also never enough sugar in the kool aid...
The graves were so lined up in order...everything was so green....and beautiful...I posted the pictures here a few years ago of the cemetary...
It's so sad that all the tour buses going to florence just pass the cemetary on the autostrada....some of the tour guides will say...'if you look over to the left there is an american cemetary" of WW2... But no one stops.....Over 5,000 US soldiers lay there and get very few vistors.. I'll always remember me standing over a grave and the soldiers names was gonzalez or rodriquez... I would wonder if there family ever came out here to visit him...I was only 8,9 or 10 years old but I have always thought of that....how many of these soldiers who died in Italy ever had there relatives come to pay hommage...
last week I was at the Vietnam Wall Memorial....they have a WW 2 and Korean war one now...pretty powerful....
We have over 4,000 kids already killed in Iraq..lets think about them today for a few minutes between our busy weekend....
A few years ago i posted pictures of the florence american cemetary....but youtube has two beautiful videos.....please watch them..there only 4 minutes and 3 minutes each...watching them brings me right back to 1960,61 or 62...what a great memory to have and treasure...thinking about these soldiers and watching them makes you think....
But need some help..can someone on the next post down load the youtube videos for me and put them below...
Florence american cemetary
American cemetary in Florence
I'm so bad at pasting etc
God bless you all..esp those serving everywhere in the armed services
