Memorial Day is about armies, guns and death. It is not uncommon to say we should do away with warfare but there are times when people really don't want to suffer and going to arms seems the best choice.
When I was growing up, Memorial Day didn't mean all that much. I didn't lose anyone close to me in warfare. I was born at the beginning of WW2 and didn't remember much about it. I do remember my parents suddenly erupting with excitement and I learned it was because the radio had announced the end of the war. I remember several Lassie movies I saw that involved armies.
Because Wisconsin has a short summer, the official start has traditionally been Memorial Day and the summer tends to end on Labor Day, the other Monday extended weekend holiday. That leaves us June, July and August. We tend to think 80° is hot and 90° is really getting up there. The resorts in the lake country of the Northwoods, Paul Bunyan country, have depended on college students for help. The state legislature has said that colleges cannot begin fall semesters before Labor Day. Climate change, online education and changes in what is thought to be good use of the post-highschool years may combine with ending the Covid lockdown to modify practices of the last decades.
