Among the men folk in our small community, three times a year they mow, and clean up our local cements. The old timers kind of supervise while the younger men do the mowing
We women, get together and make sure everyone that served in the military buried there has a flag and flower on their grave for Decorations Day (Memorial Day)
We have veterans from every war buried there.
I take special care to see one woman gets a flag on her grave although she did not serve.
The inscription on her tombstone tells of her 3 sons and her husband who died when their ship was sunk during the Revolution.
On Decorations Day, you will find just about every person from our community there for the services.
I’m glad to hear that. The people here in our small Vermont town help take care of the graveyard, and there are always flowers and small flags there.
As it happens, we have a monument for the first permanent settlement in our town on our property, back in the woods. It’s a granite stone with the story carved into a bronze plaque on its face, surrounded by granite posts and chains. When we moved in, the woods were a mess and you could hardly find it. I’ve spent considerable time cleaning up around it—as well as an expanding circle of woods near the house.
Someone had planted vinca in front of the original house that once stood there, and I’ve gradually pulled all the weeds out of it so it looks really nice. Also pruned the old apple trees and cleaned up the maples that grew by the house. You can now see where the cellar hole was.
I have also spent several years pulling up Virginia creeper that was killing the trees and flowering shrubs around it. Probably it originally grew on the sides of the house, I’m not sure. Anyway, the apple trees are starting to bear again, and the wild roses are a lot happier. It looks good, and it’s very satisfying to leave old things like that better than you found them.