Memorial Day

Doesn't feel like Memorial Day here. At all.
Even though it is a holiday. Beginning-of-summer holiday. Bank holiday. Three-day weekend.
It's all more secular here.
In the States, holidays are often about remembering dead people -- Martin Luther King, all the dead presidents, the veterans -- somebody.
Here's it can just be about having a day off.
Bank holiday. Banks closed.
A lot more honest, when you think about it.
Anyway, Memorial Day -- today -- was a big thing the last dozen years I was in Washington. First, there's all the big-deal barbecues, and then in Washington, hundreds of thousands of guys descend on the city on their Harley-Davidsons in a yearly go-to-Washington motorcycle march the capital hosts. Lots of rednecks with bandanas riding real slow on their massive bikes all over the city for three days.
When I was growing up there, there was no motorcycle march. It was mostly about going to the beach then, kicking the summer off with a day-trip to the shore. A sunburn, usually. Fries on the boardwalk. Strip pictures in the little photo booths.
Do holidays happen even if you're not there?
I think so.
My son in Rome and I talked about Memorial Day yesterday.
He was missing it. Remembering the guys on their motorbikes.
Probably wishing he could be home -- for the day anyway. But working.
Lucky to have a good job.
Here's to Memorial Day 2010.
Throw a burger on the barbecue for me. And pass me a Bud.
I can just hear the bikes slowing down on the curve outside.