Memorial Day

I began the day by remembering my grandparents, the uncles, aunts, and cousins and how we’d gather at Camp Hawk on Memorial Day. I remembered my dad going up to bat in an early Memorial Day gathering when the Paul Becker family met at Harvey County Park.  As a cousin wrote on Sunday, Dad has hit a home run. This Memorial Day, we put flowers on his grave. On July 5, 2024, Dad joined his parents, brother, sisters, and nephew Clayton in Glory.

Instead of breakfast, ball, lunch, and homemade ice cream at Camp Hawk this year, Laurence and I met Roger and Elsie Penner, Ron and Carol Becker, and Eric Pobee on the Metro North train. We took it from Grand Central. Rons and Rogers found us on the third to the front car when they got on at Harlem-125th, and Eric boarded the same train at Stamford, Connecticut. Eric knows Connecticut, so when we reached Bridgeport, he gave us a quick tour before we went to the ferry.

Laurence and I are acquainted with ferries; however, we were not prepared for the mammoth one awaiting us. We boarded, and I watched as the vehicles drove on. The ferry can hold 1,000 passengers along with 100 vehicles. As we found our seats, Eric offered us each a can of coconut water. He said, “You didn’t ask me what I’m pulling this (a rolling backpack)for.”

I told him that I had wondered but my Canadian friend says that she is amazed by the personal questions we ask here in the USA. He laughed, understanding what I meant. “I like it,” Eric, who is from Ghana, said, referring to the questioning.

The hour and a quarter ride to Port Jefferson on Long Island was fabulous. As we pulled into the New York harbor, the verdant green hills came into view, the many boats docked, and a bustling harbor town.

Afterwards, we ate seafood (most of us anyways) in an open air restaurant near the water. I asked the busy waiter why the wooden cross on his label. He said, “It’s my way of honoring Him.” We wandered down by the water, walked, and sat on a bench. No picture could do justice to the beauty, and the best way I can describe it is the Power and the Glory with the sunshine and clouds over the blue of the sea.

A little girl showed me the seashell she’d found. Her bearded dad said, “If we find another, we’ll bring it to you.”

“We’ll be at the ice cream shop,” I replied.

“Don’t say that word around us, he said. 😀

Our group each chose their favorite ice cream, and enjoyed it while sitting around outside the shop. (Most of us anyways 😉.) And then it was time to leave the touristy part of town to climb steeply for a mile and a half to the Long Island Railroad Station. Eric walked part way with us before turning around to take the ferry back to Connecticut.

I fell asleep during the train ride into the city. Laurence and I got off at Jamaica to catch the subway home. Rogers and Rons went on to Penn Station. Never before have we rode Metro North, a ferry, and the Long Island Railroad on the same day, but we’re already dreaming of when we can do it again.

Laurence and I appropriately finished the day by eating dumplings on Broadway in Elmhurst. It wasn’t homemade ice cream at Camp Hawk but then and now, life is good! Berniece

How did you spend Memorial Day?