This weekend is a long one, brought about by the Memorial Day holiday on Monday. It’s the traditional start of summer. The weather will be warm and just about everyone will be outside enjoying time with family. All of that’s great.

But it’s not what Memorial Day is really for. Memorial Day began as a way to remember those we lost fighting in the wars of this nation. It actually dates back to the Civil War.

According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs ”Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.”

Advances in battlefield medicine mean that more of our wounded soldiers make it home from conflict. Injuries that would have been a death sentence 50 years ago are survivable today. That’s a great thing. Obviously, our service men and women still die in combat. Most of members of the armed services would tell you that they certainly don’t want to die, but they understand that possibility comes with the uniform.

A few days ago, I was entering a fast food restaurant when I overheard a woman call out to three soldiers in the parking lot in uniform to thank them for their service. I was impressed by that. We should never forget those who don a uniform and are prepared to defend this country with their lives. We should never forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice. We shouldn’t forget those who came home, either. Many injuries today aren’t visible or obvious, but they leave scars just the same. When I was conducting interviews for the West Virginia Voices of War documentary, I lost count of how many veterans shed a tear as they recalled the things they saw on the battlefield.

This Memorial Day, enjoy the beginning of summer; enjoy time with your family and friends. But take a minute to remember those who didn’t make it home, whether it was from a war many years ago or more recent conflicts. And say thank you to someone who did come home. Even if they look fine, you may not realize the demons they’re struggling with..

I have this mental image of a 30-year high school class reunion: men with bad comb-overs in polyester suits and women in floral dresses sharing pictures of their grandchildren. If that mental image is accurate, how did I come up to my 30^th high school reunion this summer? I mean, c’mon, I’m not old…

Last week, a classmate from Nitro High School took the first steps to organizing a class reunion. My class has always had the advantage/disadvantage of falling in step with the Nitro High “All Class” reunions. I don’t think we’ve had a reunion of just our class since our 10 year. She created a Facebook group and started messaging classmates to see who was interested in doing something low-key the day after this summer’s all class reunion.

To help out, I started paging through my Facebook friends list to invite people who weren’t already in the group. That was an interesting exercise in itself. I’m sure I missed some people because I was trying to mentally sort through a friends list that has people on it from college, life after college, a professional career and classes before and after mine from high school. Several times, I saw a name on the list and had to stop and think “Were they in my class?”

Until Diana took the step to begin organizing a reunion, I was a bit apathetic. I mean, I’m still in touch with a few people from high school. But that was 30 years ago. What do we have in common now? And it’s not like I was the superstar high school student. It’s amusing to me just how little I am in my senior yearbook. Some people think of high school as the best time of their life. I had fun in high school. I had fun in college and I’ve definitely had fun since then. But I really don’t look back at high school with mist in my eyes.

Years ago, before I took off on some grand adventure, a good friend reminded me to “not get above my raising”. It was a simple admonition to remember where I came from and use that as a foundation. Paging through my friend’s list to find classmates, it hit me. High school is where we came from. High school was where it all started. I think a class reunion helps us to not get above our raising. It’s a great way to reconnect with the people we knew before life got in the way of our plans.

All of the sudden, I’m looking forward to my reunion this summer. But if I see anyone in a pastel polyester suit, I’m so out of there….

One of my earliest memories is fishing with my dad on a river. It was probably a creek, really. At this point, 40 years after the fact, I have no idea where we were or any more details about the day. Just a memory of sitting on the edge of a stream and drowning bait. I have no idea if we caught anything or if we kept anything. But that’s not the point. I remember doing it.

I’ve been been able to take my daughters fishing many times over the years. We aren’t avid anglers, desperate to fish for hours any chance we get, but generally they’ve been fishing a couple times a year since they were three or four years old. And they remember it. Of course, now that they are in their early teens, they might deny it, but that has more to do with being teenagers than anything else. As an added bonus, most of the times they’ve been fishing, they’ve also gone with their grandfather. My dad. I think that is a great example of life coming full-circle.

I recently read an article titled “The Science of Why You Should Spend Your Money on Experiences, Not Things”. The short version is when we buy things, we might be happy about them for a short time, but then we get used to whatever we bought and the happiness goes away. That leads to the need to buy more things to be happy again. It is a continuous cycle.

When we experience something, it becomes part of who we are. Even years later, we tell stories that start with phrases like “Well, the time I was in Paris…” or “There was this time I was fishing with my dad…” Occasionally they start with “Hey y’all, watch this…” but that’s a different discussion.

The great thing about experiences is they don’t have to cost a lot of money. Most of the time, it just means taking the time and doing “something”. They do take time and a little thought, however. Going fishing with your kids can be a fairly inexpensive day, for example. A couple fishing rods, some bait and your fishing license is all you need. (Kids under 15 don’t need a license.) You can probably pick up the rods at a yard sale if you need one. And then you just need a body of water with (hopefully) some fish in it.

The conclusion of the article was that doing things and building experiences is a much better use of our time and money than buying things. We build memories and make ourselves happier in the long run.

Considering that today is Tax Day, maybe we all need to take a day and go fishing. But don’t forget your fishing license.

If I could just remember where I put it….

A week or so ago, I went to a friend’s birthday party. Margaret Josephine (Cameron) Gill turned 100 on March 31. Think about that for a second. She was born March 31, 1915. World War I began in July of the previous year. The first powered flight was 12 years before. Women got the vote when she was five-years-old.

Margaret is a first generation American. Her father came from Scotland at the age of nine and worked in the mines in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Margaret was born on Coal River near St. Albans. Later, she married David Gill. They eventually moved to Boomer, West Virginia when David went to work for Union Carbide and they moved into company housing. They had four children, 11 grandchildren and 26 great grandchildren. All of that would be a fine life, filled with laughs, hardships and love. But, it’s not the whole story.

At the age of 43, Margaret started working at the Boomer Post Office and continued working for the US Postal Service until she was 75. She was the first woman to become a level 19 postmaster in West Virginia serving in Boomer, Alloy, Eleanor and finishing up her career at the Montgomery Post Office. She also held many state and national offices with the National League of Postmasters and was even selected as the National Postmaster of the Year. Margaret also won national awards while in West Virginia and South Carolina as editor of each state’s League of Postmasters newspaper.

She also fought breast cancer three times. The second time, when her doctor told her she would need to have a unilateral mastectomy, her reply was simple. “Fine, but you have to do it by Tuesday. That gives me two weeks to recover before I leave for Russia with my daughter.” Margaret traveled all over the country and the world. She now lives in South Carolina with her family.

There were 100 or so family and friends at the party. She met everyone at the door and talked and had a great time. The party officially lasted from 6 to 9. I think Margaret left around 10:15 pm, and that was only because her ride was ready to go. She outlasted a fair number of people younger than her. Realistically, though, everyone there was younger than she was.

This was actually the second 100th birthday party I’ve attended. My great grandfather turned 100 when I was a teen. Back then, of course, I knew everything. Now that I’m older, and have teens of my own, I realize just how little I actually do know. I think I have a better appreciation of what it takes to make it to 100. It’s no easy task.

Personally, I hope Margaret is around another 25 years, although she said she doubts that. Talking to her and watching her laugh with her family, it makes me remember what’s really important: laughing, loving, faith, some adventure and having a purpose. Those are the lessons I take from Margaret Gill. And the occasional mixed drink when it’s time to relax….

Without knowing what else is in the paper today, I can’t say if there is an April Fool’s Day story or not. The practice used to be fairly common. Newspapers and other media would run a front page story about some far-fetched topic, mainly to see if anyone would catch the joke. There are cases, more often in college newspapers, where the entire front page is made up.

Today, with the proliferation of fictitious news sources and satirical websites, whose goal is to trick people into believing (and sharing those stories on social media), I think many traditional news sources are afraid to have anyone question their credibility, even for a laugh. (On a related note, when you see a news story that makes you so mad that you can’t believe it and you have to share it on Facebook immediately, please make sure it’s real first. Find a fact checker that you trust and go to that website to make sure it’s not there. Just because it is on the internet, it is not automatically real.)

Even ignoring the satire (which is rarely funny), there is some awful news in the world today. Our leaders don’t lead, seemingly bending to the will of whoever writes the biggest check. There is hate, violence and destruction, all in the name of religion. Many people wonder who is really in charge and doubt that anyone else cares. The humor seems to have gone out of the news. In many ways, that’s sad.

I’ve always been a big believer in laughing at myself. Some days it’s hard, but those are the days it is probably the most important. As far as I’m concerned, you’re not allowed to laugh at anything (or anyone) else if you can’t laugh at yourself first.

The one problem I have with April Fool’s Day is when the “practical jokes” become mean-spirited. (How is that practical, anyway?) One definition for practical jokes is that they cause “the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion or discomfort.” We teach our children to do unto others… so hurting or embarrassing our friends and associates doesn’t make much sense, either. Not that this is anything new. April Fools jokes have been around for centuries.

All this considered, I vote for returning to another name for April Fools: All Fools Day. I think we should all act like fools today and see if we can get someone else to laugh at us. Like I said, you’re not allowed to laugh at anyone else if you can’t laugh at yourself first.

And I can’t think of a better way to reduce the stress and frustration of the middle of the week than everyone acting a fool..