Memorial Day

Today, while you're eating your burgers and hot dogs or steaks or whatever you decide to cook on the grill, pause for a minute to think about those who never made it back. From Europe or Asia, or the Middle East. Maybe from some country that they couldn't even pronounce. Maybe they never made it out of the US, but they still died serving out country.

Many didn't know what they were fighting for, they just fought because they were told to fight. In doing so, they preserved the right for you and I. They paid the ultimate price and today we remember them. Remember their families, their mothers and fathers, their children.

Remember.

$ - Contest - you make the story - cash prize - $

This weekend is the time for Freedom Weekend Aloft, our annual hot air balloon festival. In addition to the balloons, there is live entertainment, rides for the kids, a Frisbee Dog contest and more.

This year the balloons came over our neighborhood. One landed in the street less than a block away. My wife took the photo at the right of one of the balloons that flew overheard. She didn't realize the bird was in the picture until she got home and downloaded the pics.

I was trying to decide a caption and a story to go along with the picture and decided to hold a contest. You, my faithful readers, can write your own caption and story and post it here. I'm actually going to give a cash prize! Ok, it's not great, but I figure with this being Memorial Day weekend ("first enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War" according to Wikipedia), I can spring for a crisp Abe Lincoln, a $5 bill.

So here's the challenge. Come up with a caption or headline for the picture and short story to go along with it. On Saturday, May 30, I'll review all of the entries and announce results. I'll send the winner $5 by either snail-mail or PayPal (if I can figure it out), so be sure I can get in touch with you by email if you think your story is best. I may engage the services of an additional judge. Decisions of the judges will be arbitrary and final, no whiners allowed.

Memorial day

Is it the beginning of summer? Or just a time for cook-outs? I went to wikipedia for some information on Memorial Day. While it may not always be the best source, it proved a good resource in this case.

Memorial Day "commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country."

Today my family will celebrate by going to a state park and cooking some hamburgers and hot dogs. Then, we'll possibly take a stroll along some of the paths. Down by the lake or up by the dam.

But we'll also stop to remember some of the folks who made this possible. Some people who fought to make us a country, not a territory. Some people who kept the "united" in United States. Some people who went "over there". Some people who fought an agressive man, and kept him from taking over the world. Some people who never understood why, they just did what their country asked. And some who understood and tried to make it safe for you and me.