To the Editor:

Once again, Memorial Day has snuck up on us. Recent rains and warmer temperatures have given the grass new impetus and the threat of frost has passed so vegetable and flower gardens are going in.

Have you and your children visited the family gravesites to tidy them up and place flowers on the graves? Have you talked to your kids about their ancestors who are buried there?

The popular PBS television series "Finding Your Roots" with Henry Louis Gates Jr. has stimulated some viewers to learn more about their own family genealogy. That research can lead one to visit the many cemeteries in our area in search of family graves and the markers that shed light on the lives of the departed.

This weekend, before the cookouts commence, talk to your family about those family members who are no longer living. Plan a trip to their final resting place and decorate their graves. Teach them about your family's history.

Take time on Monday, a day set aside as "Memorial Day," to take part in one of the many commemorations taking place across the North Country. Explain to your family why we pause to honor those who died, giving their last full measure of devotion in our nation's wars, so that others may live.

Remember, when you sit down to a Memorial Day weekend feast, that we are so fortunate to live in the land of the free, because of the brave. God bless you all, and may God continue to bless America. 

David H. Ellis
Hammond