by Mike –
Memorial Day in the United States is a day set aside for remembering the people who died while serving in the country’s armed forces.
Many Americans during this three day weekend will go to local celebrations or family cook outs.
On Saturday I attended a local Memorial Day Car Show at the Veterans Transition Center on the grounds of the historic Fort Ord in Marina, California. Here are some photos.
A very American Ford Thunderbird
One of my favorites from the ’60s – the Dodge Charger
One of my favorite fast backs from the ’60s – the Dodge Charger
1936 Ford Standard Coupe in Bright Red
’32 Hot Rod
Custom with matching trailer
Custom paint
A work of art
Custom Woody
Unusual hood ornament
I call this one, in the slide show below, the American Hot Rod.
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Below is the Gettysburg Address, one of the most famous speeches in American history – yet so brief.
While President Abraham Lincoln is speaking about the American Civil War, a very dark time in American history, his words apply to any war and are appropriate today as we remember our “honored dead”.
The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
Morris T. Burnett’s grave in France
My granduncle, Morris T. Burnett, was killed in action on November 6, 1918 in France while a private in the US Army during WWI and is buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial in Lorraine, France.
Thank you for this post. It is so brilliant in what it is conveying and it’s brevity and simplicity.
Mike –
Thanks so much for coming out to our humble little car show — appreciate the mention in your column and all the great photos. We do this to support our Veterans who have served and sacrificed — thanks to all who came out and support our cause.
Terry Bare
Director
VTC