Packed harbors, crowded ferries, maskless Main streets and indoor dining — after 15 months of pandemic lockdown, Martha’s Vineyard is readying for Memorial Day.
At a ceremony Monday, Paul J. Brawley, a commander in the United States Navy Reserve, quoted Gen. Douglas MacArthur: “The soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
Not long after sunrise, volunteers gathered in Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven to help set up the Avenue of the Flags, commemorating those who served. Community members young and old helped prepare this final leg of the Memorial Day parade.
Veterans, law enforcement officials, Coast Guard members and Boy Scouts marched to the beat of a drum and patriotic music during the annual Memorial Day parade Monday. Plus happy birthday wishes were in order for veterans agent Jo Ann Murphy.
Traffic came to a halt in Edgartown Friday afternoon as the Edgartown School took to the streets for their annual Memorial Day march to the sea.
At 1:00 p.m., the entire school followed the seventh grade class down to Memorial Wharf for a short ceremony.
There was never a fairer Memorial Day than Monday when Vineyard Haven stirred to music now martial, now solemn on the clear air, and stood with bared head to do reverence to veterans of old wars and of new.
Traditions will be kept this Memorial Day weekend as the Vineyard honors veterans and celebrates the coming summer. As in years past, events begin Friday with students at the Tisbury and Edgartown schools marching to the sea to lay flowers in the water.
