I’m walking through history right now at Linden Cemetery in rural Christian County, Missouri.
Beneath this sunny sky, accompanied by birds, breeze and traffic from a nearby road, I’m thinking about May 30, 1915, when I’ve read that 500 people gathered here for Decoration Day. Ozarkers came to decorate graves with flowers, to reminisce and remember “friends and loved ones who have gone to that undiscovered country from which no traveler returns,” the local newspaper columnist noted.
In the past, Decoration Day was a big deal for cemeteries across our rural region and beyond. The observance began after the Civil War to honor fallen soldiers. Over time, it grew into decorating graves of all loved ones…