Fifty years ago this week I was preparing to observe my first Memorial Day as editor of The Superior Express.
For this 24 year-old “youngster” I expected the day would be different for in my life Memorial Days had long been different but I never dreamt how different it would be.
In other years I had gone with my grandparents to decorate graves. The Blauvelt side of the family had graves in the Hardy and Superior cemeteries and the Wrench side had graves in Mitchell County. In preparation for the annual pilgrimages to the cemeteries, my grandmothers assembled bouquets featuring peony and iris flowers taken from their own gardens.
For my immediate family, Memorial Day was the second busiest day of the year at the gasoline station. (July 4th being the busiest with the fireworks stand open, wheat harvest normally in full swing, and hundreds of people stopping while either on their way to or coming from Lovewell Lake.
Memorial Day had more lake traffic at the gasoline station and some fireworks stand activity but it wasn’t a particularly busy day for our farmer customers. Many of them took the day off. While the opening of the fireworks stand was about a month away, we often had to tend to the fireworks stand on Memorial Day for most years that was the day the importer and distributor we purchased fireworks from chose to deliver our goods. We needed to stay close and be ready to unload his truck when it arrived without notice.
But Memorial Day 1970 was different.
For the first time, I attended the annual Memorial Day Service at Evergreen Cemetery. I remember parking in the general area of what is now Landmark Implement and walking for the first time on the sidewalk which linked the City of Superior with the cemetery. I entered the cemetery through the gate at the southwest corner and made my toward the chapel and the first of the two services held that morning. After the service in the east cemetery, I walked down hill to the west cemetery where the service was repeated.
That afternoon, I was back in Superior to cover the dedication of the Andersen Memorial in City Park.
The governor of Nebraska was scheduled to speak at the dedication. Members of the Superior Jaycee Chapter were responsible for the memorial which honors a Superior High School classmate of mine who lost his life in Vietnam.
As the memorial dedication was underway, the Superior Rescue Squad was called to an automobile accident near Lovewell Lake. I ran from the park, got in my vehicle I left across the street in my grandparents’ driveway and followed the ambulance to the lake. There I was saddened to learn a woman who lived in the second 80 acre track west of the gasoline station and her adult son had been killed in the two-vehicle accident.
Since then, I have gone to Memorial Day Services not only at Superior but in nearby communities. And for more than 30 years, the weekend has also included coverage of the annual Lady Vestey Victorian Festival. Most years I have at least driven through the state park and observed all the campers and boats. One year, while en route to meet friends at the lake, I was stopped by a two-vehicle head-on accident near the current state park office. One of the park authority officers who was helping to care for the victims asked that I go to the road intersection now marked with four-way stop signs and make sure the roads were open for the emergency vehicles coming from Belleville, Superior and Mankato. That was a terrible experience. I have joked that a barefoot guy wearing a tank top and cutoff jeans does not make a good flagman. I was happy to have a game warden in full uniform relieve me of my duty.
I’m not sure what I will do this year.
Because of the pandemic, the festival will not be held. The pandemic is also responsible for the cancellation of cemetery services. With Memorial Day coming early this year and a cool spring, I won’t have any flowers ready for decorating graves. I may have to resort to using artificial flowers or perhaps dandelions.
While the festival and memorial day services have been cancelled. I expect Lovewell State Park will be filled.
I understand why people like to go the lake on Memorial Weekend. I would like to do the same but this year with the COVID virus circulating in the area, one needs to be careful.
Sunday I read about police recruits gathering at a Kansas lake. After the party, 10 of those attending contracted COVID-19 and 20 more people were forced to isolate at home. According to the report, those attending the gathering did not violate any guidelines then in place.
Whatever you do to observe the holiday this year, stay healthy. The cemeteries already have enough burials.
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