Memorial Day
What do we remember and why?
Day and night shots of the haunted Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel… haunted by the ghosts of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift. I “had me a real good time” there in the previous century with some English gentlemen who took over tending the bar and made every possible gin-forward cocktail you could dream of.
Ghosts visit the sites they cannot (or will not) forget.
On this holiday, Memorial Day, I want to ponder what we remember and why.
Memorial Day, the holiday, used to be called Decoration Day, and was first observed by individual states beginning in 1861 (in the South) and in 1868 (in the North) to honor fallen Civil War soldiers. In 1971, Congress standardized the holiday by changing both the date of its observation (to the last Monday in May) and its name to Memorial Day.
The timing of the observance coincides with the unofficial beginning of Summer, and that blurs the boundaries of why the day - Memorial Day - is observed. The Fourth of July is a high summer holiday as well, and except for the fireworks (referenced in our National Anthem), it, too, is more about beaches and barbecues than a nation’s independence.
You may, however, see messages like this one below all over social media from a variety of sources - businesses mainly - because they recognize what’s going on and this message is to save face. Call me a cynic - but saving a great percentage on luxury items or grilling essentials has NOTHING to do with the Americans who never got a long weekend. Having a day off to remember, that’s important - so long as you do the remembering.
Decoration Day is the name of both an album and a song by Drive By Truckers, released in 2003. It is the band’s fifth album, and the first with Jason Isbell.1 Jason wrote the song “Decoration Day” in which he sings "a story that's rumored to be true" about an intergenerational family feud that has lasted for so many generations, they’ve all forgotten why they’re feuding.
And below is a photo of Jason with BBC’s legendary Bob Harris, backstage at the 2012 Americana Music Awards show - way back when Bob and I used to share a space back and side stage for him to conduct interviews with performers and award winners, and I would upload the associated photos to the wire services. Americana Fest was still a home-grown operation back then!
I posted the video of Jason’s 2012 acoustic performance of “Decoration Day” because memory exists in, around, and of STORYTELLING and that’s something Jason does brilliantly.
As you may know (and if you don’t, now you do), I am writing my memoir, and Substack is the platform I use for my discipline. Subscribers and followers, both free and paid, are the motivation for me to write a bit and scan photos every day to deliver something to YOU, those who read what I have to say. Your comments and observations help me figure out if I’m getting my point across. Honestly, I never know what stories and photographs resonate with people. I have no critical distance because at the end of the day, I am the story.
Substack is full of editors and others who would be happy to advise you how to write your memoir - for free or for a price - but I think (like Glinda the Good Witch has advocated since 1939) we all have the power in us and have had it in us all the time to make things happen and to see clearly - it just takes time or a house falling on a witch.
Over the past year, this is the advice and attitude - in a catchy AF song - that inspires me (as we join the performance in progress).
I was reminded, in 2020, of the magnificence of Dennis Hopper, the man. Not just the iconic actor; not the celebrity… the man. When my friend of four decades, Mike Scott told me he was writing an album about Dennis Hopper, and started talking about Hopper as a photographer, I immediately bought a book of his photos. It was during COVID - a weird time, but one I appreciated for the number of books I was turned on to and bought and read.
When I moved and then set up my library in my new place, I found the packing slip in the book - a memory - a memento of many things wrapped up in a piece of paper that was five years old. Of the things that crossed my mind:
how long it takes to bring something to fruition
how quickly five years goes by
how many things happen in five years time
how many things were forgotten in the interim - only to be recalled by a single piece of paper
I lived a lifetime in a moment - the moment I saw the packing slip!2
Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction - memoir or history (and what is memoir but a history of you?) - the important thing is to tell the truth. That’s all you need to know. Do you need good English language skills? Yes. Hopefully you learned them I school and retained the lessons. The old adage / hackneyed cliche is true: practice makes perfect. Just keep writing and reading and editing and getting it to deliver your thoughts the way you want them to be understood. And “you can’t please everyone, so you have to please yourself.”3
If you want to tell a story, study storytellers. Read books, pay attention to lyrics. Be honest. Even if you can’t remember, write about what you do.
Jason and the Truckers parted ways in 2007, when he embarked on a solo career.
I wish like Proust, it had been a Madeline (oh and that’s not just ANY cookie… if you have never had one, you must). It was just a receipt.
Lyric and moral from the song “Garden Party,” by Rick Nelson
Yes...so much more i could say but yes will do.
Too many platforms etc, I may not always remeber to like or comment but you are one of my fave follows on here. Always something to take away from your posts.
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Gah! Yes to all this. And you know how much we all love Freakout at the Mud Palace.
You got me to pull Dennis Hopper: Drugstore Camera off the shelf...