Decoration Day

Next Monday is Decoration Day at the Ott Cemetery. I will be in Texas visiting my kids and grandkids so I will be going out to decorate graves next weekend. I bought flowers today.

Back when I was a kid, Decoration Day(s) was a big event. We have family at the Ott, Cowan, Pleasant Ridge, Fairvew and Flippin Cemeteries (and a few more). But the Decoration Day that I most remember is the one held at the Ott cemetery. We all got new clothes because people dressed up for Decoration back then. My Granny Ott often wore a hat.

Lots of people came to the Ott Decoration. I would see cousins that I didn't see very often. Like us, they would all be dressed up. It's always windy at the Ott. Even on the hottest day a breeze will be blowing there. After cleaning and decorating graves we would have "dinner on the ground." Everyone would bring food and come down to our house and we would eat.

It's an old cemetery with several graves. There are 5 generations of my family buried there. Not just Otts - my Granny's Bundy family is buried there too. My Granny had a sister named Mahlia Melvina who died at a young age. I used to wish my name was Mahlia and I would wonder what she looked like. Iwould look at the graves of my Ott great-great grandparents, John and Sarah, and wonder about them. They were the first Otts to live here and homestead the farm. There's been much discussion over the years about Sarah. She is a mystery to us.

There are several other graves that I used to really wonder about. A young Kaler girl, who's family put stones around her grave so it wouldn't be lost. And the many baby graves used to worry me. Now I think of those who have been put there in my lifetime...my Daddy, Granny, Aunt Opal and favorite cousin, Earlene, my nephews, David and Ronny.

Decoration Day isn't what it used to be. It's becoming a dying custom. Now people just come and go as they wish to decorate and some cemeteries don't allow deocrating at all. The headstones must be flat and only a small vase for flowers is allowed. That seems very sad too me. I hope that never happens at the Ott cemetery. It's a beautiful place and anyone is welcome there to visit or to be buried there. We're still "country" enough to hold to old fashioned Decoration Day.