Remember?

The big event on Memorial Day in Indiana is, of course, the Indianapolis 500 Race! I recall as a kid lounging in or around Dad's car and with doors open and the radio blaring we listened to the exciting race. In the 30's and 40's it lasted over 4 hours because top speed was about half what it is today! And who ever imagined a young lady piloting one of those machines, like now! At home you might listen to a radio wrap-up or re-play later that day, but forget about seeing it in film until the newsreel showed at the nearest theater! However, most families took some time to visit cemeteries and remember departed loved ones, especially those who served in a war. The Grimes's, including Great-grandpa William Lewis Grimes who served in the cavalry in the Civil War, were mostly buried in the Lutheran Cemetery east of Wallace. But later my parents were interred near Mother's Pyle family plots at the Masonic Cemetery just west of Waynetown.

We presently have plots there also right close to our son Jim, and left a floral remembrance there recently. Mamaw/Mary K.'s Carmack family way back had a family cemetery near their farm on what was the Newport Ordinance Plant in WWII. One of her ancestors served in the Revolutionary War and we're not sure of his restingplace, but her parents and other family members are buried at the Methodist Memorial Cemetery on Plant property perhaps a mile or two away. Her father's family (Jackson) is buried close to the Wabash River to the east at the Cemetery near the old "O.P.D." train stop south of Newport. It's more difficult now to visit that area, but we try to remember our departed loved ones as often as we can. Some might think that visiting graveyards is depressing, but it's honoring to the dead and humbling to the living. Folks, believe it or not, "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), so BE READY! And be thankful, too, for those brave servicemen who served and died to keep our nation free. Even Jesus wept at the grave of a dear friend, but He (and only He) could promise (John 11:25,26): "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. BELIEVEST THOU THIS?" We do pray that you do or will do so soon!