Memorial Day

In Boulder, the traditional thing to do on Memorial Day is to run in a race, the Bolder Boulder, which takes over most of the town for most of the day. But none of us is a runner, so we decided to do the more old-fashioned traditional thing instead, and visit cemeteries.

First we went to Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder to visit the boos' grandmother's grave.

Green Mountain is a very pretty cemetery. In the years before we left, it sometimes seemed unwatered and unkempt, but this year (probably because of all the snow and rain) it was green and lovely.

I tried to get the boos to find their grandmother's grave, but since they apparently still don't know what their last name is, it was a lost cause. However, they were interested in the little vase that's attached to the stone and helped me fill it with water and put the flowers in.

I called them over to be in the photo and this is what I got. We did try to prevent them from climbing on gravestones that did not belong to us.

We also own the plot to the left of this one and I am planning that Rocket Boy and I will spend eternity there, but he doesn't like to talk about it.

After this, we went home for lunch and a rest (RB and I were both terribly tired today, for some reason). While we rested, the twins ran next door and got into a mess. Two doors down from us is a daycare/preschool, which is owned by the woman who lives next to us, and in between her house and the daycare is, for some reason, a little old playhouse (very attractive to five-year-olds, of course), and for some reason someone had left some almost-but-not-quite empty paint cans inside it.

Here's Dad frantically trying to scrub paint off the concrete and the little house, while two not-very-sorry little boys (note the new clothes -- they'd already had a bath) watch.

Finally the mess was more or less cleaned up and we were off to Mount Olivet cemetery in Wheat Ridge.

Clifford is buried here, with many of his close and not-so-close relatives. Rocket Boy worked hard to get a headstone put in, and we wanted to see how it looked.

It's a standard military headstone, but with a peregrine falcon at upper left and a bighorn sheep at lower right. (Those are two animals that Clifford worked with a lot, both when he was a biologist for the Game & Fish, and later, in retirement.) I think it turned out very nice, though I don't like the location.

In this photo, you can just see a bit of Clifford's marker, just past the one on the left of where Rocket Boy is standing (before I added the flowers). He was cremated, so there didn't need to be room for a coffin, just an urn, I suppose. They just sort of stuck him in randomly, at least that's how it seems. He's not even close to his parents, he's right behind an uncle.

Oh, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Didn't the Boy Scouts used to put flags next to the graves of veterans for Memorial Day? I suppose they're too busy these days. And I suppose that doesn't matter either.

The twins were fairly puzzled by the day's activities, but I think it was good for them. My mother always talked about how she enjoyed going to the cemetery with her family on Memorial Day, and putting flowers on various people's graves. It's a way to begin getting used to the idea of death, as well as the idea that when people are gone, you can still remember them. Still bring them flowers.