In the years following the Civil War, Americans began a springtime ritual of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers and flags.
That was the start of Decoration Day. Today we call it Memorial Day.
On Saturday, Boy Scouts with Troop 39 — and Troop 139, Westport’s first female Scout troop — continued the tradition.
They decorated the headstones and markers of scores of military members at 5 cemeteries: Greens Farms Congregational Church upper and lower; Assumption; Christ & Holy Trinity, and Willowbrook.
I saw them, as they finished at Christ & Holy Trinity cemetery on Kings Highway North. After they left, I visited those graves.
Some honored men killed in action, as far back as the Civil War.
Others led long lives, after service in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam.
The Boy Scouts remember them.
All of Westport should too.
(Cemetery photos/Dan Woog)
Thank you, Troops 39 and 139!
(Photo/Laurie Cizek Brannigan)