Memorial observances remembered
I began my growing up in the Pea Ridge community in the 1940s. The United States had entered World War II in December of 1941, after the Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. One of the annual and very riveting events in my early years was the observance of Decoration Days at the cemeteries.
We call the observances Memorial Day programs today, but in those years, most of us used the term Decoration Days. My family always attended at least two, and sometimes three Decoration Day programs. Our family cemeteries were the Pratt Cemetery, located just off Old Wire Road south of today’s Pea Ridge National Military Park; the Pea Ridge City Cemetery, located just west of old downtown Pea Ridge; the Bentonville City Cemetery off South F Street in Bentonville; and the Elm Springs Cemetery at Elm Springs, Ark.
Decoration Days were considerably more elaborate events than we commonly see today. Especially during wartime World War II, the focus of the events was very much on patriotism and remembering and honoring our soldiers, especially remembering those who had died while serving in our country’s military forces during the war. But the gatherings were also in remembrance of our family members who had passed on. Observing Decoration Days made me much more aware of the earlier generations of my family, especially the generation of my great-grandparents, who were buried in the Pratt Cemetery, just a half-mile from the old family farm home.
Decoration Days were often quite extended events, involving gatherings lasting several hours. Sometimes a local church related to the cemetery would actually hold its morning worship service on the cemetery grounds, so there would be singing and prayers and preaching, along with sometimes patriotic talks. Then there would be dinner on the grounds with long tables holding the various pot-luck dishes provided by the friends and neighbors. Sometimes the event brought family members from distant places in a kind of family reunion for decorating the graves of deceased family loved ones.
Today, most of the flower arrangements placed on loved ones graves are very nice artificial flowers. Many families are committed to maintain flowers perpetually on their family members’ graves. We never saw that in the earlier days. Nice artificial flowers were not available back then. The artificial flowers that sometimes were seen in stores in those days were very obviously “fake flowers,” very unattractive, and most people would never use them on the graves of loved ones.
So it was fresh flowers everywhere. Fresh flowers naturally don’t stay fresh for long, so it was mainly during the days following Memorial Day that the flowers were still presentable. They were soon gone, the Decoration Days over, and people didn’t think of attempting to keep flowers on the graves all the time. I moderate that statement to acknowledging that some cemeteries allowed the planting of living flowers on the graves, so the blooms could display much longer. I would never recommend that practice unless family members are willing to return fairly often to attend to the plants. Otherwise such plantings become ragged and undesirable and often present maintenance problems for the cemetery.
Our Pea Ridge Cemetery Association holds its annual meeting and Memorial Program on the Sunday before Memorial Day. This year the observance is set for 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 27. Everyone who has family members or friends and loved ones buried in the Pea Ridge Cemetery is invited to attend.
The program will be held on the cemetery grounds unless inclement weather forces a move to the nearby Westside Baptist Church building. A brief business session will present a financial report for the previous year, will describe current developments and activities related to the cemetery, and will elect two members to the cemetery’s supervisory board. Following the business session the Memorial Program will be held, with the Rev. Scott Stewart, pastor of the Pea Ridge United Methodist Church as the speaker. The Memorial Program seeks to honor our military service personnel who have served in our country’s armed services, and to remember and honor deceased family members and the many people who have contributed to the development of our community through the years.