I am a Victorian Soul, live in a small townhouse that was built in the mid 1970's, not a huge Mega Mansion, with my Hubby Joe, who is a Retired Letter Carrier. I worked night shift as an RN on a Hospital based Rehabilitation( Physical Medicine) Unit for 37 years before I had Knee Replacement Surgery and officially Retired in 2019 after 41 years working in Direct Patient Care ... I am LOVING Retirement!!!!

I DABBLE IN A BIT OF THIS AND THAT!!!!

" IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO BE WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN"
George Eliot
George Eliot was actually a pen name for a woman named Mary Anne Evans......

BLOGGING FOR FUN AND FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Memorial Day Observance, 2021

 


 

 




  Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 

 I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.....

Ours started out with a cold front that moved in with rain.....

We had temps. in the high 40's, barely reaching 50 on Saturday and Sunday....

By the time the rain was done on Monday morning.....


We had gotten 2 inches of rain!!!!
 
Truth be told we really did need some rain but it ruined Memorial Day plans for a lot of people.....


 Joe was lucky again...
 
He won $50 yesterday when our number came up on the Daily Number for the Cash Club ticket that we bought from our Church ( first time ever in about 25 years of buying the Cash Club tickets from our Church)
 
And today, he won $1000 on a Scratch Off!!
 
 
 $100 on the Bonus.....
 
 
 And Win All of 20 prizes equaling $900........
 
 
Yes, we will be sharing the wealth with tips for the workers at Valley Mart where he buys his tickets, a little something for Jim, Danielle and Joey and then the rest will pay upcoming taxes.....
 
I guess his luck comes from stepping in God knows what when he walks our Grand Pup Faye in the mornings..... 
 
 
You may remember that I mentioned that the houses on both sides of me were sold and are being remodeled by the new owners....
 
The house where my neighbor passed away was bought by my neighbor who now lives on the end of our row......
 
A nice guy from Saudi Arabia who works from home for the US government....
 
He has been doing a lot of the work himself......
 
Painting and has ripped out the carpeting and put new flooring in through out the house.....
 

 That house just needed some updating.....
 
He will be renting it out.....



The house on the other side of me, where the crazy person lived who destroyed the house, has had the windows open for 3 weeks now and I still get a whiff sometimes of that stench that was from cat pee all over the house....

The new owner, a woman who bought it for her daughter and grandson to live in, has been doing a lot of the demo herself with her friend and pretty much has the house gutted...
 
Not sure if they will have to rip out the dry wall as it depends if they can get the smell out of it but they will have to repair some of the walls where there are holes from being hit with a hammer apparently!!!!

Those women are power houses and even bought stock cabinets for the Kitchen from Lowe's and carried them up my 13 steps from the parking lot into the house themselves!!!

I love seeing strong women not be afraid to do some manual labor!!!!


 

  Now I know Memorial Day is viewed as the start of the Summer and most people "celebrate" it with cook outs and family get togethers....

 

 Which is all well and good but hopefully, while "celebrating" everyone remembers the real reason that Memorial Day, formerly called Decoration Day and what my Mother always called it, came to be......

 

Early Observances of Memorial Day

"The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers."

Decoration Day

"On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

 The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

 On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.

Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent "years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor the dead on separate days until after World War I."

History of Memorial Day

"Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday."


 So Memorial Day is more a Day of Remembrance of those who made the Ultimate Sacrifice for our Country and not really a day of "Celebration" like July 4th is.....

It is more of a somber, reflective Holiday....

But we can look at it as "celebrating" the lives of those who lost their lives while fighting for our Freedom....

So with that thought, I planned our Memorial Day Family "Observance".......
 
I decorated our Front Porch and Yard.....
 
 




 
If you missed this post, please click HERE

I do have to say that I love not having to worry about going to work on the Holidays.....

It is so much easier on me as I do every Holiday dinner here for our family of 5.....

On Sunday, I made Potato Salad.....


And Deviled Eggs.....

 

 I realized that since my Tupperware Deviled Egg container is over 43 years old, it qualifies as Vintage, I guess!!

I made these 1/3 pound sirloin burgers which hardly shrink up at all!!!

Turned them into cheese burgers with this fresh home made Bacon Cheese from the Amish Farmer.....

Sweet corn.......

Bacon Mac and Cheese..

Watermelon and an Ice Cream cake for dessert......

I apologize for the pictures taken inside the house as I am still using my old camera.......

Hoping that my new replacement camera will come by the end of the week from Kodak.....

We always enjoy our Holiday meals inside the house as I do not have room outside for all of us to sit and eat and we are much more comfortable inside especially if it is hot.......

I set a simple Patriotic table.....

 

Nothing fancy.....


Using everything paper!!!!
 

Joe picked up this book of paper place mats at Ocean State Job Lot for $4.99


He used a Crazy Deal Gift Card so it was FREE!!

It has 4 different patterns of paper place mats inside of it......

This is I will be using for July 4th!!!

In a future post, I will be sharing what I did with a few sheets of this pattern.....

This is the third pattern, which I may be using for Labor Day............

And this one was the one I used for my Memorial Day tablescape.....

 I bought the flatware several years ago in Wegman's on Clearance.....

 The paper plates came from Sam's Club......


The napkins were bought in Big Lot's.....

The tumblers are vintage Ruby Red Depression Glass....

In the center of the table, I thought a Patriotic Angel would be more appropriate for this Holiday of Remembrance and Observance......

 

I made this Angel last year......

 

This Star from a tattered Flag was sent to us by one of the Veteran's groups that we donate to.....
 

I thought it was perfect to use as an embellishment for this Angel...... 


 
If you would like to see how I made this Angel, please click HERE

The dessert plates for the Ice Cream cake were also bought at Big Lot's.....


Like I said, nothing fancy.......

 We enjoyed our dinner......

Jim and Danielle worked the Holiday but were off on Tuesday, finally after a 6 day stretch after coming back from their Las Vegas vacation.....

 We thoroughly enjoyed having little Faye, our Grand Pup, visit us again and now after staying with us for 9 days when Jim and Danielle were on vacation, she has definitely made our house her own.....

 I did not take pictures because of having to use my old camera.....

After the kids left, I got to sit out on the back Patio for a bit and did take some pictures of this Robin who was in the Trees behind my yard and was singing up a storm!!!!!




And I have been carving out some time to read.....

I just finished Sue Grafton's "L is for Lawless".....


 And will be starting Sue Grafton's "M is for Malice"

I have already read "A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar and C is for Corpse"....

I bought what books I could find of hers at church flea markets for 25 and 50 cents each....

I will be on the look out for the ones that I do not have and carry the list in my purse.....

I have about 6 more of hers to read now.....

 

I hope you enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend and observed and remembered what this somber Holiday is actually about.....

 

And I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......


I am linking up to these parties:
 

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful post Deb! The front porch looks amazing and so does your potato salad! It's also great that you will now have neighbors that take care of their homes the way you do. Joe seems to be on a role with his winnings! How exciting! Take care and have a wonderful week!

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  2. I am a huge Sue Grafton fan. I was a member of the mystery guild book club and read all her books as soon as they were released. And I have reread them a time or two also. Around 1990 I got to hear her speak at one of the Cleveland Plain Dealer Author Luncheons that they used to sponsor at the Ritz Carlton at Tower City in Cleveland. I went with our local library director. They had three or four different authors with very different genres. One was a money guru and I think one might have been Tom Grissom. The only one I had ears for was Sue and she was so down to earth and fun. She told about the end of her first marriage and how she relived her stress and anger at her cheating husband with writing a mystery novel. As you might guess, about 75% of the audience was there for the other authors so it was extra funny. We had very fancy salads with our lunch and it was also funny to watch the men at our table picking out the radicchio and other lettuces like they were poison.

    We had our first big family gettogether at my daughters. Instead of making tons of food to feed tons of people, all I had to do was stop at our butcher shop and pick up 24 bratwurst patties for the bbq. I think this old age thing. My daughter in law got a recipe for Arkansas green beans that she served at my grandson's first communion. It is now becoming a staple at every potluck!

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  3. Wonderful post, Deb. I just love your front porch all decorated for the patriotic season and such a gorgeous front door wreath. Fabulous tablescape and love your patriotic angel. How lovely to showcase the small star from the tattered flag. I hope you have a very blessed week. Hugs.

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  4. I love your blog, Debbie! Thanks for sharing your creativity, charm and inspiration with everyone. Wishing you the best of everything, always.
    xo, V

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    Replies
    1. V,
      Thanks so much for your kind words!!! I also appreciate you for stopping by and seeing what I have been up to...Just trying to keep it all real..Have a great weekend!!!
      Hugs,
      Deb

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  5. Deb, I would hope that everyone remembers the real reasons for the holiday, but a good nudge never hurts. Your dinner sounds so good and very American!! Your porch looks lovely as usual and I love the angel with the piece of flag and the reminder of what it is. You have one lucky guy on your hands. All so exciting. Glad you had a grand time with family. It is good to be back at it again..Happy Day..xxoJudy

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  6. You were definitely geared up for the holiday! It's so festive! And that dinner sounds as good as it can be -- I think everyone in blogland wants their personal invitation to your table! Happy new week!

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  7. Your front porch looks awesome ! You have such a great front porch that you can do it every season and festivity. The food looks amazing too. You are a "complete" lady. There's nothing you cannot do well my friend.
    Thank you for your kind visit sweetie. You are so lucky to have a 'computer expert' right at home for free, maybe with just a meal, you're ready to go, lol..
    Have a nice rest of the week.
    Fabby

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  8. Your patriotic angel is so cute! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

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  9. Your neighbors sure are providing you with entertainment! Memorial Day weekend was cold and rainy here, too. We had meatloaf for dinner - how crazy is that? Thank you for sharing at Party In Your PJ's.

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  10. Your table is lovely. I really like those placemats. Thank you for observing the holiday and remembering. Congrats on winning those numbers. #HomeMattersParty

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