There were Memorial Day parades all over the region Monday to remember those who died serving their country including in downtown Rochester. That’s where a chatty nine-year old named Sam Lighthouse was more than willing to talk about the military.
“I hope to see people who have been in the Army, the Navy and everything else,” said Sam, who said that he has been to ten parades and that it’s always a learning experience. “Last year I learned a lot about people who have been in battle and went to war.”
People like his dad Jeremiah.
“He was born in North Carolina when I was still in the Marine Corps. So he was young when I was still in,” Jeremiah says he served in Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He says he brings his family to these parades to show respect. “I’ve had a lot of friends who have died. So it’s out of respect for them.”
About a block away stood Hilton’s Terre Mcelwain. She and her husband Gordie were standing across the street from the Riverside Convention Center with a framed picture of her brother Clifford in her hands. It was taken before he headed off to Vietnam. She says she was 9 when he left. He died in combat in 1970.
“In our family we would wonder what he would have been like, we don’t know,” said Mcelwain. “That’s just the thing. That’s the mystery that will never be answered.”
Terre says her family visits the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. every 5 years. That service continues in the next generation.
“We’re a family that serves,” said Mcelwain whose 15-year-old granddaughter is in the Civil Air Patrol.
The parade was sponsored by the Veterans Memorial Executive Council and took its traditional route, starting at East Avenue and Alexander Street and ending at South Plymouth and Exchange Street.
