Something happened between "You died in war for my freedom" and "Great, a day off, pass the potato salad."
There will be dozens of Memorial Day parades and ceremonies today throughout the Tristate honoring our war dead.
But with the declining population of veterans from World War II and the Korean War, and with those born since the 1970s having grown up without a prolonged war, many locals think this still-sacred national holiday has changed.
At least in perception.
"We just got away from it somehow," said Louis Breitenbach of Anderson Township, who survived 11 months as a POW of the German army in Poland. "When I grew up, my parents went to the cemeteries all the time. . . . It's not much about parades anymore. We're gettin' too cotton-pickin' old to march."
Mr. Breitenbach, 77, served aboard an Army Air Corps plane during World War II. Under attack, his unit was hiding in cloud cover as it tried to race back to England to safety "when we ran out of clouds." They were shot down, and Mr. Breitenbach was taken prisoner. He will gather with a small group of friends today, and at some moment Mr. Breitenbach will quietly think to himself about the men who died in that German prison camp.
Another poignant rememberance in Anderson will occur at 2 p.m. today at Hillcrest Cemetery, when a ceremony will recognize the efforts of local youths who stepped in to help clean up the 12 acres of rolling hillside off Sutton Road, home to more than 1,000 African-American veterans.
With Hamilton County, township, state and federal officials all distancing themselves from the Financial responsibility for upkeep , the task has fallen largely to county probationers and veterans' groups.
This year, Boy Scouts stepped in. But young people's views of Memorial Day vary.
"I just know it's a day off from school," said Sarah Craig, 13, of Union Township, Clermont County. "We're going to Kings Island."
Her friend, Joanna Morris, 13, a classmate at Glen Este Middle School, was equally excited. Both said they're not taught much in school about the meaning of Memorial Day.
Once called Decoration Day, Memorial Day began in Waterloo, N.Y., on May 5, 1866, when the townspeople gathered to honor Union soldiers killed in the Civil War. They decorated the soldiers' grave sites and flew flags at half-staff. The last Monday in May became a federal holiday by law in 1971.
That same year, in July, ex-Marine Terry Consider, 49, of Mason, returned stateside after a 13-month tour in Vietnam. Sometime today, his mind will drift to "some of my buddies whose names are on the (Vietnam Veterans Memorial) wall."
"The important thing is, a lot of men and women gave their lives so that we could have a day off from work or school," he said. "Maybe take a couple of minutes to think about that."
