Besides the Rippey Alumni Party, missing the Memorial Day activities is what I miss most this year. For years I have followed the Kinkead-Martin American Legion Post #583 “boys” as they performed their ceremony at the four cemeteries.
Fairview Church always started the day with their program. Whenever I attend that church, I feel a special connection, knowing that my great-grandparents were members and are buried in the cemetery across the road. I got to know a little bit about that family, visiting with Glenn and Edna Mace, many years ago when I was doing family research. They remembered the children of my great-grandparents, including my grandmother. I spent an afternoon with them and Edna even provided a picture of the family that was in her possession. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
After a little refreshment at Fairview, we drive to the Bowers/Angus Cemetery and then on to Old Rippey. Until recent years, there were the trumpet players and sometimes a few others attending these ceremonies. These are both beautiful cemeteries and many of the pioneers who settled the areas south and west of Rippey are buried in these cemeteries.
The guys take a small break before the ceremony at Rippey begins. They march to their place and wait to conclude the program. After the gun salute they share their “brass” with the little kids, and always have extra in their pockets from the previous ceremonies, so all can get a memento of the day. At the end of this day, they would have performed their ceremony at five cemeteries, counting Pleasant Hill on Sunday.
A good lunch at the church concludes the day and usually there are many out of town guests that attend each year, so it is a reunion of old friendships, and lots of memories to share.
The legion boys have put up with my requests each year for pictures, and as I look them each year, there is that familiar tug in my heart when I see the faces of the guys who shared this day for so many years.
-Jean Borgeson