Memorial Day Weekend I - The Kardokus / Gee Way

THE OLD RITUALS

Memorial Day Weekend.  A time of cookouts, lake trips, food and fun for many.  For my family and me in particular, it means fake flowers and the dusty wind that just seems to always come with cemeteries in Oklahoma.
From the time I was just a little thing we would make the trek out to Eakly (where Mummy is from) to decorate Grandpa Don, Grandma Florence and Zelda Faye's graves.  We only occasionally make the longer journey to Enid for Grandpa Russ's grave.


I remember a lot of those trips to the Eakly Cemetery from my childhood.  Before Aunt Thelma passed away we would go to her house with the horseshoe drive afterward.  It had been Grandma Florence's house and behind it used to stand the house that Mummy and her uncle Johnny were both born in - among many other peeps I am sure.  I still can find it when I drive into Eakly (which is rare - usually we just hit the cemetery and head back towards Binger) but it is no longer in the family.


These Memorial Day visits and Mummy's feelings about cemeteries helped me to grow up with a fondness for them.  Mummy always loved cemeteries and dreamed of buying and living in an old rural church with a cemetery.  She wanted to spend her free time tending to the cemetery.  I think I would like to be a cemetery sexton in retirement or something (assuming, of course, that I START a career to retire from!).


I am not sure when I went on the cemetery run by myself for the first time - and by myself I most likely mean with the ex-husband.  I would guess maybe 14 years ago or so.  As time went on, more graves were added.  Chris's grandparents in Anadarko (handily on the way to Eakly), and in Eakly, Mummy, Cousin Rattlesnake Leroy and Grandma.  There is a ritual to it, as there is to just about anything I do, which involves certain colors of flowers for each person and the order of the stops and what convenience stores to stop at among other things.  Memory Lane Cemetery in Anadarko is first, followed by Eakly Cemetery.  Then home.  If a trek to Enid is planned, it is most likely a different day.  Also I greatly prefer to go just prior to the weekend or very early in the weekend; you don't want peeps to be at the cemetery thinking the family has been forgotten!


But the most important part:  the flower colors.  I have only set the colors for the more recent graves - very carefully, of course.  The older graves get the same colors that Mummy had put on them for many years before I ever started going with her or was on this planet for that matter.  Those colors were also carefully chosen; substitutions are done in extreme emergency situations ONLY.

A NEW TRADITION

Several months ago Rick and I were walking in Rose Hill Cemetery - the premier walking trail in Chickasha - when we spotted Mrs. Kluver's headstone.  It was right near the gate and easy to get to so it took us all of a couple of minutes to decide that we would add Rose Hill Cemetery and Mrs. Kluver to our Memorial Day Weekend treks.
You see, while we only met Mrs. Kluver on a few occasions she is very important to us.  We bought her house!  There is even still a 'K' on the front screen door.  :-)  She was just the sweetest little old lady!  I know she would be disappointed that I didn't keep her garden spots up and that we have taken out most of the shrubs and stuff AND that the house is in such desperate need of remodel.  Nevertheless, I think she would be happy with us being there because we LOVE the house!!!  This is what it looked like shortly after she and Fred bought the house in 1945:

The house was 20 years old at the time.  She lived there for 60 years (he passed away in 1996) and they raised four children there.  They built on to the back around 1960 - probably mostly to give Mrs. Kluver a larger kitchen!  :-)  We still have the coppertone stuff that was put in at that time.  The back porch was added on to in the 90s - or so I estimate from various pictures.  Those windows you see?  Pretty sure they are the same ones we have now except for the one on side of the house on the far right.  Isn't it just fabulous to have a house with so much history and love behind it?  I think so!  I could go on and on about this topic, but I will wrap it up with a picture of the house now for comparison.  This is a photo of a pencil drawing Michelle did of the house (using Google Maps!) as a Christmas present:

CONCLUSION

Now that you know a little bit about the Memorial Day Weekend rituals and new addition to this year, let's get started on chronicling Saturday, May 26, 2012, shall we?