MEMORIAL DAY MEMORIES

Today is Memorial Day, the unofficial start of the summer season. Here are some of my Memorial Day memories..

-  Memorial Day has always been my favorite summer holiday ( even though it's in spring). July 4th is patriotic but too damn hot. Labor Day is the start of football season but also sad with summer behind us and winter ahead. Memorial Day is perfect. No too hot yet far from the winter. The first holiday off since New Year's Day, a long time coming on the calendar. Kids are getting out of school. Weddings and graduations abound. It's the season of hopes and dreams, even in baseball, which is well underway now. It's a holiday to look forward with hope and promise, but also one to look back and reflect.

- Thinking of war vets and especially of those who died to make us free. I always try to listen to that great Billy Ray Cyrus song, "Some Gave All.' It's the perfect Memorial Day song. The parades, the tributes and the military honors are all well-deserved on this day. Sure, we think of cookouts and the jersey Shore during this much-anticipated weekend. As long as we never forget what Memorial Day is all about. Watching "Saving Private Ryan" is also a good tradition to fall into every Memorial Day.

- My dad fought bravely in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. He was hurt on Christmas Eve, 1944. My mom got a telegram that evening, saying he was hurt, but with no details, what his injuries were, where he was or even if he were still alive. That had to be a terrible Christmas, full of anxiety and fear, for my parents and my 1-year-old brother.

My dad, like most soldiers, never used to like to talk about the war. When he died in 1977 he was buried without the Purple Heart he had  earned from the battle of the bulge. Instead we found it later, tucked away in a box in a drawer. Mom suggested I wear it  as a remembrance of dad. I still wear it proudly to this day. No, I didn't earn it but I'm honoring my father and all vets by keeping it alive and sharing memories with others.

- For a long time my dad's grave site didn't have a flag. So one year before Memorial Day I fought for the flag that my dad had fought for at one time. I made a few phone calls, ended up talking to someone a the VA, and now there is an American flag proudly displayed at his grave site.

- Memorial Day in the mid 80s ( can't exactly recall the year) stands out as the day I officially found out i had kidney stones. I'll never forget it as it was early afternoon, we were getting ready to bar-be-q when i felt the sharpest pain I ever knew in my side and back area. Plus I was deathly sick. I didn't know what was happening to me. They rushed me to the hospital and guess what? I had a kidney stone trying desperately to vacate my body.  When I finally passed the lil' bugger a few days later, I couldn't believe how a speck of gravel could cause so much pain and grief.

- Bar-be-q food is the best. Hot dogs are my favorite, followed by chicken and burgers. The sides- cold salads, pasta salad, macaroni and potato salads, are the best. Even dessert- ice cream or watermelon- are refreshing treats. Stuff always tastes better on a grill, especially a charcoal grill. Cookouts are unique because they are the one meal you share with family, friends or even strangers. It's so casual, eating outdoors in a backyard, wearing practically nothing. No reservations needed- just pull up a picnic table.