{"id":102,"date":"2016-10-10T00:23:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T00:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2016-10-10T00:23:08","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T00:23:08","slug":"memorial-day-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 24 May 2015.<\/p>\n

Most holidays start with Happy – Think Easter, Thanksgiving, and New Year. So every year, when I hear about the upcoming \u201choliday\u201d sales in honor of Memorial Day, I cringe.\u00a0 I don\u2019t consider Memorial Day a holiday.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s a 3 day weekend.\u00a0 Yes, school is almost over for the year.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s even a time to spend with family and friends but it is not a holiday.\u00a0 On Memorial Day I believe we should all honor those that came before us allowing us the freedom we have today.<\/span><\/h1>\n

I will not be visiting graves this weekend as all of my family is buried far away from where I reside.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean I won\u2019t be thinking of the sacrifices of my forefathers and my memories of past Memorial Days. <\/span><\/h1>\n

As a child, my grandmother, Non, always took me with her to tend to the graves of her father and uncle.\u00a0 As a first generation American, she had no fallen soldier graves to care for in this country but I remember the cemetery filled with small flags to honor American veterans.\u00a0 Non was lucky her Sonny, my Uncle George, had made it home safely after serving in the Coast Guard during World War II.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
George and Betty Mione Kos<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As Non and my mother pulled weeds and clipped grass growing around the stones, I would read the inscriptions if I could, because my multicultural neighborhood had many markers engraved in languages other than English.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Although I could not read the Polish, Lithuanian, Greek, Italian and like my Great Grandfather\u2019s memorial, Croatian, I knew that the men buried there had shared a common experience in a war.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The back of the cemetery held the graves of World War I veterans, the middle section seemed to be for those killed in World War II and in the front, Korean and Vietnam veterans.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Too many lives cut short too soon.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

I am also fortunate to have my father’s diary from World War II while he was stationed in Alaska. \u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Orlo Guy Leininger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

His war time experiences were very different from my husband’s uncle. \u00a0With a German surname, my father was not sent to Europe but to the Pacific theatre instead. \u00a0My dad’s sister, Mary Ellen Leininger Tronolone, enlisted as a Yeoman, First Class, in the Navy. \u00a0Most of her service was in Washington, DC.<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mary Ellen Leininger Tronolone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\n

Having known most of these family members I am proud of their bravery and thankful for their service. \u00a0You can read more memories of soldiers by visiting a\u00a0<\/span>Crestleaf blog, <\/span>Real Letters of Love, Hope & Inspiration Written by Soldiers \u2013 A Memorial Day Tribute<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 24 May 2015. Most holidays start with Happy – Think Easter, Thanksgiving, and New Year. So every year, when I hear about the upcoming \u201choliday\u201d sales in honor of Memorial Day, I cringe.\u00a0 I don\u2019t consider Memorial Day a holiday.\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s a 3 day weekend.\u00a0 Yes, school is almost … Continue reading “Memorial Day Memories”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[79,80,81],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-stories","tag-kos","tag-leininger","tag-tronolone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}