The Memorial Day parade was one of the big community events of the year when I was growing up in Manchester, Connecticut. The parade would march up Main Street and turn right on to East Center Street. There would be a brief ceremony at the World War II Memorial in Munro Park, then the marchers would make a U-turn on Goodwin Street and head back toward Center Park. The parade would disband near the park’s statue of the Civil War soldier, where some of the spectators would remain for a service to remember those who had died in the nation’s wars.
The service would include the singing of patriotic songs by Manchester High’s Round Table Singers, the recitation of the Gettysburg Address by a high school student, a keynote speaker, and prayers. The playing of taps signaled the end of the ceremony. During the early 1960’s, the monument was surrounded by shrubbery that made the area around it look like a sort of sanctuary. Flowers were arranged around the pedestal, giving it the appearance of a church altar. The service was attended by people who understood and respected the reason it was being held. I didn’t fully realize at the time that for some of the adults around me, their loss remained immediate. World War II and Korea, even World War I, were for them not just historical, but personal.
It can be thrilling to watch a parade with soldiers marching in step, flags waving in the breeze, and bands playing a tune by John Philip Souza. So I’m thankful I walked up to the parkin those days instead of going straight home after the last marcher had passed by. Because of those services, Memorial Day meant more for me than just a day to enjoy a parade. Their solemn nature, so different from the pageantry that I had witnessed just minutes before, planted seeds of ambivalence in my adolescent mind. Those subconscious seeds took root, and I began to question if war was the glorious adventure it was still sometimes portrayed to be in those final years of post-war America. Questions like that became the basis of a worldview that has continued to expand ever since.
David James Madden