Why Remember if We’re Quick to Forget?

Memorial Day is a local holiday. Each town has its very own variation to mark the solemn day, which I really wish would have remained May 30. From town to town, I dare to say, the protocol has remained unchanged since at least the 1950s. That is certainly not a bad thing. In fact, ceremonies that continue add a sense of hometown to each one.
Since I’m on a soapbox, the other day, I got an email solicitation from a car dealer, generated by General Motors. It touted Detroit’s latest and greatest during a Memorial Day Sale. As a Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, as a classmate of several whose names appear on The Wall in Washington, D.C. and in Wildwood, as cousin to a Marine whose name is on The Wall, I took deep offense at that sale. The use of the name of a solemn day that is set aside to honor our heroes killed in war to peddle automobiles was certainly not new, just another slap in the face to every veteran.
If only I knew a member of General Motors Board of Directors, I would give them a personal earful about that particular grievance. The exact same thing should set Veterans Day aside and apart from commercialism. It is just plain wrong.
Those who read the Memorial Day stories that begin on page one will see that I have attempted, in a small way, to deepen the knowledge of the namesake of the Court House American Legion post, where Middle Township has gathered for probably over 50 years to pay homage to its fallen hometown veterans.
It truly grieves me to see the “For Sale” sign on that humble white building. No buyers have snatched it off the market. I keep thinking if only I would be lucky and hit the lottery, I would buy that lot and donate it to the municipality as a veterans’ gathering place. If the old place is sold, a true piece of Court House history will fall in a pile of cement blocks.
The veteran for whom it is named, Capt. Thurston Elmer Wood, was Court House born and raised, and died in France in World War I. More amazing, Col. Edmund O. Howell, whose Swainton home was just north of Conover Lane, attended one of the earliest meetings that led to the creation of the American Legion. A Democrat, Col. Howell also nominated Woodrow Wilson for governor then later, for president.
Court House folks worked diligently to create that humble white cement block building when the American Legion was filled with veterans from World Wars I and II. Just about every one of them is gone, and, to the one with the right checkbook, the old building might follow their demise.
In addition, in the county Veterans’ Cemetery on Crest Haven Road, who will pay tribute to the memory of Lance Cpl. George Dramis? Thousands drive past his traffic island monument daily between Dias Creek and Shunpike roads in Court House. On Memorial Day, members of the Marine Corps League detachment named in his memory will place a wreath there. With so many new residents in town, most might never know Dramis or what he did. He, too, was a Court House lad.
Stone Harbor’s American Legion Post 331 is named after Pfc. Stephen C. Ludlam, whose mortal remains rest in the Union Cemetery in South Dennis. Ludlam, an 18-year-old, was killed in action during World War II in France on Jan. 25, 1945.
An entire page could be filled with history of each veteran whose name is attached to a Legion or V.F.W. post. They were local men who died in their country’s service.
Each town will remember its own on Monday. Traditions will continue, but with fewer old veterans each year.
After World War II, in Court House, a role of honor was posted with names of those who served. It was located on Mechanic Street. Time took its toll, and the monument disappeared.
The late Katherine Willis, longtime clerk of the board for county freeholders, made it one of her last missions to resurrect the names of those veterans and had them printed. Copies were presented to every living member or their family at a Middle Township Committee meeting.
It was her way of keeping alive the memory of those who served so that we, who live in small towns like Court House, can mark a special day of remembrance.
How will we celebrate? By focusing on those who paid for freedom or by peddling merchandise under a Memorial Day sale tag?
Veterans are a hearty lot, thank God. They had to be or they never could have worn the uniform, carried out orders, did what was necessary, and witness awful sights that war visits upon humanity.
Maybe those vets will simply ignore Memorial Day sales events, and think about hometown men like Thurston and Edmund, Stephen and George and what they did in the service of this nation. I salute them so that Memorial Day could forever remain a local holiday in the finest red, white and blue tradition.