The sentiment and the meaning of Memorial Day

The sentiment and the meaning of Memorial Day is long entrenched in the history of this old Veteran and proud father of Veterans.


Keeping History Alive©

I was blessed to grow-up in Pennsylvania. I need not tell you of the wealth of this nation’s history that occurred in the Commonwealth colony of Penn’s Woods.

I was exposed, from my earliest remembrances, by family, community and schools to the richness of our history. I was blessed with teachers who took the time to point out our local history, our state’s role in the beginnings of what became the United States and mostly of the people who were part of it all. We learned about not only the well-known’s, but our un-known’s, as well; all the peoples of so many ethnic and religious backgrounds and their origins. We became proud of our diversity through our being united in cause and home and hope for a better future. We did not place our differences ahead of our commonalities. We built our lives on both.

My family, paternal and maternal, has representative histories of most of the early settlers of this continent. Starting in the 1600s, continuing through the 1700’s and 1800’s, they came. They came hopeful, they came brave, they came humble and they came grateful. They adopted and were adopted by the new land they now called home. They built the farms, villages, towns and great cities, they established trade and commerce, they raised and loved their families, they tilled the land, they built their houses of worship, they donned the uniforms of freedom, they depended upon their faith in an Almighty God to see them through and they were part of the development of the greatest experiment in the history of humanity, the experiment of a representative democratic-republic, a land of freedom, a land of expression, a land of liberty, and a land of justice, for all.

To have lived in the once colonial frontiers where Washington walked as a young man in the King’s service during the French and Indian Wars; To have ancestors mentioned in Washington’s early communications with his commanding officer; To have retraced the lawful immigration of ancestors from multiple places in what was then called Europa, to their new homes in the Middle-Atlantic and New England colonies; To follow those brave soul’s paths to and through the known frontiers and beyond; To be familiar and comfortable with the lands and homesteads of those principled adventurers; To visit the hallowed burial spots of so many kin who fought in every war era from the French and Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War , the War of 1812, the Civil War, Spanish American War, WW1, WW2, & Korea. To have experienced these things has kept their history alive in my mind and heart.I am grateful for the teachers who helped me to learn and understand so much.

I am grateful I learned to read the histories of my ancestry, I am grateful I can count my blessings for all the gifts of freedom I have, I am grateful for the sense of history that gives me perspective for today and tomorrow.

Richard G. Shuster, RandomlyRamblingRick, Keeping History Alive©


Who Were Our Immigrant Ancestors? ©

In our family ancestry in America, beginning with 1638 and since, from public records, all our ancestors came in the legal way, from Germany, Normandy, and all over the British Isles; England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales.

They came, they worked, they built, they protected and they cared for their families and became Americans. Some spoke German, others Gaelic, some English and other dialects, too, but all adopted English as their language for it was the language of America. They paid their taxes and contributed to their communities, their churches and those in need.

They shared their children as soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen and fiercely supported and defended their country, America.

Richard G. Shuster, RandomlyRamblingRick, Who Were Our Immigrant Ancestors? ©



Richard G. Shuster (from Rick’s Random Ramblings, Memorial Day 2008)

Have a safe, enjoyable and reflective Memorial Day weekend....rgs

rgsjesshuster@att.net

http://www.pmimchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=868
RandomlyRamblingRick, at Point Man Ministries