Memorial Day Week end

The holiday

Memorial Day was originally set aside to honor the members of the armed forces who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.   The origin holiday was Decoration Day that began shortly after the American Civil War. It became a national holiday in 1971. The last Monday in May is designated as Memorial Day.

Gateway to summer

Although summer doesn’t officially start until the Summer Solstice on June 21st,  Memorial Day is considered the kick-off of the summer season with picnics, family gatherings and all kinds of out-door activities.

Northwest Folklife Festival

As a folk singer and musician. the thing I looked forward to each Memorial Day week end  was the Annual Northwest Folklife Festival,  held on the grounds of The Seattle Center where the famous Space Needle stands. The festival runs for the entire 3 day weekend. If not playing my music on one of the many stage venues, I would eventually end up on “bluegrass hill”. The most fun I had was jamming with my banjo for hours with all the blue grassers.

Top Gun week

This year the City of Oceanside is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of Top Gun. Now, why would Oceanside be celebrating Top Gun?  Well……some scenes were filmed down on Pacific Street near the pier.  The cute little cottage that “Charlie” lived in is being move and restored as an historical building.  It was built in the late eighteen hundreds.

For 2 nights the parks and recreation  department showed the movie at the beach amphitheater, The USMC Band and color guard opened the festivities and a Marine F-18 from “fighter town USA made a fly by at the ending of our National Anthem. Lots of fun. Everybody sang along to “Maverick’s” You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling and cheers went up every time the “Top Gun House” was seen on the screen.