In my family, Memorial Day weekend means it's time to plant the annuals and wash the porch. It's the traditional start of summer, when bicycles get pulled out of the garage and everyone tries to squeeze into last year's bathing suit.
Kids start dreaming in color again.
On Memorial Day, several dozen members of my extended family gather at a park near my rural hometown in upstate New York to eat barbecued chicken and deviled eggs. Afterward we play softball while my Uncle Harvey limbers up his lawn chair. We gather at the family plot in the ancient local cemetery to remember loved ones and hear about relatives we wish we had known. The grownups plant flowers and bicker over who does the weeding. Children five or under get buckets to haul water.