...on Memorial Day. There's something about seeing those veterans marching down the road, in uniform, carrying the American flag that just starts my tears a rollin'. Our town has a parade every year and we have yet to miss it. The boys usually march with their baseball teams or Scout troop.
This year I was a blubbering, tearful mess by the end of the parade due to a noble WWII veteran wearing a uniform who wheeled himself in his wheelchair the entire length of the parade route. He refused rides and help, wanting to make the route himself.
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The Flag Goes By
by Henry Holcomb Bennett
Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!
Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by!
Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State;
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;
Days of plenty and years of peace,
March of a strong land's swift increase:
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverent awe;
Sign of a nation, great and strong,
To ward her people from foreign wrong;
Pride and glory and honor, all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.
Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!
