Today’s Post by Joe Farace
For those readers living outside the USA, here’s a little background on this uniquely American holiday…
When I was a kid, Memorial Day was known as Decoration Day. In 1868, after the Civil War, the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union army veterans that was founded in Decatur, Illinois, established the day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.
By the 20th century, there were competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions that were celebrated on different days but ultimately they merged and Memorial Day eventually was extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.
The original national celebration of Decoration Day took place on May 30, 1868. When Memorial Day became a federal holiday, it was given the floating date of the last Monday in May for the sake of those three-day weekend holidays that many people love so much.
How I made this Photo
This photograph above was shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark I and a Lensbaby Composer Pro II as a homage to the 1960 Twilight Zone episode called “A Stop at Willoughby.” about an idyllic town called Willoughby. It was episode 30 in the original series and Rod Serling cited this as his favorite story from the first season. The exposure was 1/125 sec at (Aperture unrecorded) and ISO 200.
This bittersweet television episode has stuck in my head all these years later and was re-running in my mind when I photographed this scene in the charming town of Prospect, Colorado—not Willoughby. I have written about this particular episode before because it somehow resonates with me recalling what many people think of when they say the “Memorial Day” but even growing up in a working class urban environment that was quite different from what, I think, this episode represents, the people proudly displayed their American flags as well.
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