I guess what gets me about it is how it seems like so many people have forgotten what the word “Memorial” means.
I don't know how old you are, but it used to be called "Decoration Day" and it used to always be on May 30. My mom (and everybody) always put flowers on any relative's grave. I don't know when I connected it to military service.
Wait - wikipedia - "The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day", which was first used in 1882.
[65] Memorial Day did not become the more common name until after
World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967.
[66] On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the
Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend.
[67] The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.
[67] After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress' change of date within a few years."
Memorial Day means Indy 500 to me. We used to listen to it on the radio in the car to my aunt's house 100 miles away for a family reunion. Way, way back, we had to go get my cousins out of school for the day. Maybe they didn't know Memorial Day was changed to that Monday? Or maybe because the school was across the Ohio River in KY and they wouldn't change? And now the Indy 500 is on Sunday. Changes. Whatever...........
Miamisburg also does Veteran's Day stuff, but not large scale without the 3-day weekend.
I had a middle school graduation many years ago, and to this day it still means a lot to me.
I went to a Catholic school second through eighth grade (they didn't have a first grade when I would have gone). We had a graduation mass with a procession, and a breakfast. 23 kids. I still have the program in my box of everything grade school.