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With steady rainfall and temperatures not expected to reach 50 degrees, it was a good day for the Brownsdale Study Club to meet indoors with Shelley Vogel hosting at her home.

The meeting was presided over by Vice President Barb Swanson since President Rena Perrigo was out-of-town. Having read the Collect in unison, each member answered roll call by sharing a favorite art or craft. Quilting was at the top of the list followed by original pencil drawings and painting.

Minutes from the April meeting were read and approved, as was the treasurer’s report. There was no old business to revisit. However, in new business, discussion was mentioned already about the outing the organization takes every year—usually in the fall. The topic discussed the most was another trip to see a theatrical performance. For now, the decision on where to go is tabled. Before the business meeting portion was adjourned, members were reminded that Therese Manggaard will be hostess in June 17.

Barb Swanson presented the outside reading entitled, The Origins of Memorial Day, as excerpted from the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs. To understand the birth of Memorial Day, one would have to travel back to May 5, 1868 when the organizations of Union Veterans (Grand Army of the Republic or GAR) established Decoration Day. It was an occasion to decorate, with flowers, the graves of war dead. Major General John A Logan, dictated May 30 as Decoration Day because most flowers would be in bloom by that time.

While many cities have laid claim to honoring their local war dead (i.e. Columbus, Georgia; Richmond, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois),it was following World War I that the day was expanded to honor those, who have died in all American wars. Not until 1966, during the administration of Lyndon Johnson, that Waterloo, New York was given the official title of the “birthplace” of Memorial Day. Waterloo was the hometown of Gen. Logan.

By act of Congress in 1971, Memorial Day became a national holiday. Since that year it has been designated for the last Monday in May. Ceremonies throughout remember the deceased soldiers and veterans who have served this nation.

Before Shelley served strawberry non-paddle home-made ice cream, Therese shared the outside reading. She wanted the group to know that in a single breath, more molecules of air will pass through your nose than all the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world — trillions and trillions. These tiny particles within the air come from a few feet away or several yards. Traveling at a pace of five mile per hour they continue twisting and spooling as they enter your body. Six bones in the nose usher the junk down the throat and into the stomach where it’s sanitized by stomach acid, delivered to the intestines, and sent out of your body. It is cilia, tiny hair-like structures, that move these particles through the respiratory system. The nose is a silent warrior—the gatekeeper of our bodies.

Submitted by Secretary, Mary Kidwiler-Moritz