Our Own Decoration Day memories

Our own Decoration Day memories - May 25, 2026

Here are the beautiful memories that you shared with me to help celebrate Memorial / Decoration Day. I have added a couple of my own. I am sure you all have many memories of this day, both joyful and sad, and no matter which kind, keep remembering and share them with your family. 

“I remember when my cousins and I went to Dollywood in Tennessee and we went on all the rides together.”  - Avery

At Pigeon Forge, listening to Bob singin' and pickin' !

“I have fond memories of the Holland American cruise with Gigi, you and Dad, Jim, Alda, Andrea, Lisa, Bob, Donna, Graham and Chris.”   - Steph

“One of my favorite memories is the whole family going on the cruise.”  -  Graham

1998 cruise

  "Jim said he remembered the time that our dad balanced a bowl of tomato soup on his head!  And he did it, until he didn't !!  - He was always balancing and piling up random items on the dinner table." -  Jim

“I first met Tom Evans months after I met Donna, my future wife to be, which is another story. He was the best at anything he ever did: a fabulous  musician as well as a hunter, Army veteran, and much more. He survived 2 tours in Vietnam and suffering numerous injuries causing his mobility to be troublesome and eventually wheelchair bound. While still mobile during the first day of deer season, he bagged a buck with a bow and arrow. Not that easy. 

  He played the bass guitar and the upright bass with lots of top notch players. At a fiddler’s convention in Fincastle, VA, (where Jim Coleman, one of Dad’s buddies from NJ moved to). Tom won the best “slap bass fiddle” player two years in a row.  Slap bass is a style of playing the upright Bass, usually heard in bluegrass music. 

In ‘74 I entered band instrument repair school in Union NJ. I told Tom about this. He was interested, moved back to NJ, enrolled there, and completed the requirements and graduated in half the time most students could. He made a new design of a mouthpiece puller used on brass instruments, now widely used nationwide. During the time Tom and I were both students at repair school called “Eastern School of Musical Instrument Repair,” he and I and others would play at lunch time some bluegrass and other types of music in the parking lot. 

  His wife Robin was also fabulous and they loved each other so so much. Tom died when he was 75 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  We all miss him and loved so much. One of a kind. He was always the best .”  -- Bob

Robin and Tom

        “Bob, Jim and I were so fortunate to spend our childhood days in Brookside, NJ. Such great memories of that house and the community. The Fourth of July parade was amazing, and they still have it every year. I particularly remember the treehouse that Dad built for us. It was fabulous. My friend Eileen and I slept in it one night until Dad pulled a trick on us. He rigged up some fishing line from the porch and attached something to it on the roof of the treehouse. He came out late at night and jiggled the fishing line to make it sound like there was a critter on the roof. “ - Carol

        "I also remember transcribing all Dad's WWII letters just a few years ago. I learned so many things about them from this process, but the main thing was just how in love they were, and how carefully they considered how they wanted their children to be raised, mainly with music and good books." - Carol

Thank you for the great memories and stories! Happy Decoration / Memorial Day!

Now get outside and have a picnic, remember the reason for the day, and keep sharing those stories and memories!!