EATON RAPIDS, Mich — Eaton Rapids remembers the fallen in time-honored tradition.
“It’s more of a processional than a parade…” says Eaton Rapids neighbor Chris Allen, describing the traditional way his town commemorates Memorial Day.
“People thinking…they relate parades to throwing candy and all kinds of celebration and Fourth of July and all of that, and that’s not what this is. This is to honor our fallen veterans," says Allen — one of the organizers.
Allen is President of the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall and Museum here in Eaton Rapids. For him, Memorial Day is a holiday meant to remind us of their sacrifice.
“That’s why we go and decorate the graves. All over the country, graves are decorated….We’ll put out roughly two hundred flags in one cemetery, and then this year we’re covering a second cemetery we were asked to help with.”
As for the celebrations that are typical nowadays on what began as a somber day to remember soldiers who died in the Civil War…Allen says:
“I get it. I mean, it’s the kick off of summer — people go up North, and they have cook-outs, and a lot of my social media posts are just: take a moment and recognize what they have sacrificed for us.”
The Memorial Day procession starts at 10 o'clock Monday morning on the South end of Eaton Rapids.
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