A Quiet but Memorable Salute

A Quiet but Memorable Salute

Last month, there was no lively, colorful Memorial Day Parade on Purchase Street, nor solemn Ceremony on the Village Green afterwards.

But American Legion Post 128 and the City of Rye carried on the important tradition of honoring our veterans who gave their lives for our country — with a virtual ceremony at City Hall, that was shown throughout the day.

Post members Fred deBarros, Tim Moynihan, and Terry McCartney placed wreaths near the Memorial Wall at City Hall and at the World War I monument.

Long before the pandemic necessitated the cancellation of large gatherings, longtime resident Sue Seitz had begun working on a “poster parade”. “Keeping a promise to Robin Latimer, who’d asked me to come up with ways to engage schoolchildren in American history, I went to work.” The floor-to-ceiling bookcases in her living room are filled with books, including a collection of American Heritage magazines. “On the Q.T. (Quarantine Time), I read through almost all of them and discovered great articles with fabulous illustrations of heroes and history. I then made and laminated art posters of subjects that would be good thematic fits for shop and restaurant windows on Purchase Street.”

At Woodrow Jewelers, she placed a poster on silversmith Paul Revere; at All Paws, an explanation of dog tags; at Ruby’s Oyster Bar & Bistro, which is part of the Pearl Management Group, an account of Pearl Harbor; and at Poppy’s, a copy of the poem, “In Flanders Fields”, along with a brief history of how poppies became the flower of remembrance.

The playing of “Taps” at memorial services dates backs to the Civil War, noted the poster at Plush Blow. At Rye Eye Care, we learned that Founding Father Ben Franklin suffered from presbyopia and invented “double spectacles” (bifocals) that “make my eyes as useful to me as ever they were.”

This Memorial Day, we did not get to salute our veterans or follow a parade, but we did witness a proud display by a mighty few.