Memorial Day 2022 memorializes the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Our community spends time remembering those who lost their lives and could not come home.
Traditionally, on Memorial Day weekend people visit cemeteries and memorials, and volunteers place American flags on each gravesite. A national moment of remembrance takes place at 3 p.m. Monday.
General John A. Logan’s General Memorial Day Order designated the 30th day of May 1868 for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the Civil War.
On a side hill in Historic Evergreen Cemetery there are Civil War graves, row upon row. Boy Scouts place small American flags at each headstone. Special this year is an open challenge for a local organization to creatively “strew flowers” or “decorate” the graves as General Logan ordered. Someone may want to buy and install a flagpole with an American flag and solar light. This will be a tribute to Vietnam Veteran Chet Harding who restored the gravestones after vandalism.
Owego and Tioga County never forgets her veterans. JoAnn Walter and Mary Beth Jones will reverently read the names of all veterans buried in 65 cemeteries via a live stream on WEBO Facebook, not on air.
After a two-year absence, the traditional downtown Memorial Day Parade starts at precisely 10 a.m. Parade Chairman John Loftus says to report to Temple Street in front of the Owego Police Station and First Presbyterian Church. The traditional parade route travels south to North Avenue, east on Main Street, south on Page Street, west on Front Street to the Courthouse Square. Flags should fly from homes along the way.
Show your patriotism. March or ride before or after the Owego Free Academy Marching Band. Your involvement shows you remember the men and women who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle.
A traditional Service of Remembrance will take place at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial upon arrival of parade units. Flags are at half-staff on the memorial flagpoles. Flags on the Court Street Bridge remember WWII Fallen Heroes originally and inadvertently missed when the WWII monument was erected.
A special invitation is extended to all Purple Heart and Valor Honor Recipients to stand as a group in front of the memorials to receive the community’s thanks and gratitude for their sacrifice and service. Honorees are encouraged to be in the parade with identification walking or riding on side of vehicle.
WEBO will air live from live from the Tioga County Civil War Union Memorial at 10:15 a.m., remembering 500, and at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial to remember about 180 Fallen Heroes. The broadcast will also remember those killed in action and buried in overseas military cemeteries.
Your ideas to remember those who made the supreme sacrifice are welcome. Email them to jrafis2@stny.rr.com.
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