By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to the Express
HANSON — When I was in the fourth grade at Indian Head School in Hanson, I joined the school band. I played the clarinet and kept on with it through junior high.
Every Memorial Day our band marched into the Fern Hill Cemetery in Hanson. We all wore royal blue capes with satin gold colored lining and hats to match, with black patent leather visors.
Growing up with parents who had served our country, including some of our mothers, we had heard many stories and were very proud to be part of the Memorial Day ceremony, which we took very seriously. Every year there were three boys chosen to play “Taps” on their trumpets, each one placed on a specific hill to be the echo for one another. In spite of the large crowd, it was always a solemn occasion. Our music teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt, were always there to lead us in. “Abide With Me” was one of the songs we played. It took on a whole new meaning when we played it on Memorial Day and I thought about so many people who had lost their lives in the war.
The very first time I was in the band and part of the ceremonies, when those three young boys played “Taps” and it echoed through the cemetery on that beautiful day in May, it struck me that there were young men not much older than some of us who never got to live out their lives. Some years later, I thought about some of my own classmates who never made it home from Vietnam.
In later years as an adult, every parade I went to that Vietnam vets were in, I applauded and even stepped forward one time to shake the hand of one in the parade who was in a wheel chair. His grasp and the look in his eyes as he thanked me, I will never forget. Even though Vietnam has been labeled as an unpopular War, it’s not the fault of those who served and it angers me that they are not applauded in some of the parades. I was also told by a school mate who had served in Vietnam and still attended Memorial Day ceremonies at Fern Hill, that the gun salute brings back a variety of emotional responses, depending on their experiences.
We truly owe so much to so many who fought and sacrificed so much for our country and our Freedom. It should never be taken for granted. To all who served who are still here, my deepest thanks and gratitude for your service.
When I was in school and we started learning about the Presidents, I was taken with Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and learned all I could about him and that war. One early spring day in 1983 I was looking out my window. March had given way to April and the crocuses were pushing up through the ground in my backyard. I found myself thinking about The Civil War and that it may have started on a spring day like this.
A free verse poem came to me so quickly that I picked up my pen, writing fast to keep up with the words and visions I saw. Several years later I found out my grandfather’s grandfather, Corporal Edwin W. Pratt had volunteered for the 18th Mass. Infantry in August 1861. He was one of only seven members to re-enlist and was moved to the 32nd Infantry and went home to Hanson when the war ended at Appomattox Court House, Va., in 1865. There is a famous copyrighted painting that has been licensed as print by the artist Mort Kunstler (who recently passed away) that is shown on his site called, “The Salute of Honor.” It shows the Blue and the Grey lined up facing each other the day the War ended; one of the most important moments in American History.