Memorial Day

We had a pretty good Memorial Day. To start with, we all got dressed in red, white, or blue solid colored T-shirts and showed up at Rowell's garage where we met other members of the branch dressed similarly. Flags were handed out and we all got in formation to march in the town parade. The missionaries carried a sign that displayed the name of the church, and behind them David and Brigham were on either end of a pole with a large flag on it. The rest of us got behind in rows of three, wearing red, white, and blue in a pattern. We were supposed to stay three feet behind the row in front of us and arm's length apart from those beside us, but a lot of the kids had a hard time maintaining formation. We were just one firetruck behind the Foxcroft Academy band, so we heard them loud and clear the whole march. That was the highlight for me. I love marching bands, especially when it's my alma mater. They were all in uniform, and looked really good. On our parade route, we saw Jarom and Patty's family along with Cindi and Dan's. They waved and cheered as we passed by. Then a little farther down the street, we saw Mom and Dad Atwater and Joff and Kristal's family. They walked along the sidewalk beside us for a ways, and then we all ended at Monument Square to listen to a performance by the band and a high school girl singer. It was good, and then there was a prayer, a speech, and the firing of guns. All very nice. I think there were three different prayers offered around the parade, one at the beginning and two at the end. They were all offered by the same Baptist minister, but they were good prayers. I was fairly impressed. I'm glad we live in a community that still encourages religious displays and prayers. We were the only church in the parade. There were 33 branch members who participated. Go Dover Branch! After these festivities, we all returned home where we were joined by the Atwater gang. There was a flurry of kitchen activity as everyone prepared last-minute salads and meat. Bob and Rosa-Lee came too. Then we all congregated down at the fireplace where we enjoyed a sumptuous feast of shish-kabobs, hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta salad, potato salad, three bean salad, jello salad, broccoli salad, chips, root beer and orange soda, congo bars, penuche bars, lemon bars, rice krispy bars, and chocolate cake bars. Lots of people played volleyball with the new set we just got and others played horseshoes. The missionaries came by around 3 and stayed long enough to eat. We had forty-two people here in all. The black flies were bad, but everyone kept lathering on the bug repellant and enjoyed the day anyway. It sprinkled a couple of times, but not enough to deter anyone. The Palmyra gang left around 5 o'clock, and Randy and Rachelle left around 8. We all hated to think of school and work the next day. All in all, it was a pretty great day.