Memorial Day, 1924

Next Monday is Memorial Day, when we remember loved ones who are no longer with us, especially those who lost their lives in battle or served in the military to keep America free.

When I was growing up in Los Angeles, this day was especially important to my family. Back then it was referred to as Decoration Day. We would pick flowers in our garden that morning and head over to the Odd Fellows Cemetery in East L.A. to place them on the graves of our relatives. Afterward, we would watch a parade on Florence Avenue.

This week, we’re going to look back at how we observed this day in Huntington Beach.

In 1924, Memorial Day was on Friday, May 30, and as was customary at the time, stores and offices were closed.

The day began with a solemn parade beginning at 10 a.m. at the intersection of Main Street and 7th. At the head of the parade marched about a dozen Civil War veterans in their blue uniforms and gold braid. They were members of our local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, and their commander, A.H. Thomas, carried their new silk flag.

Following them were the Women’s Relief Corps and the Daughters of Veterans.

Mounted on horseback came the grand marshal of the parade, Thomas Talbert, and his aide, Gale S. Bergey.

Then came the Huntington Beach Municipal Band, playing a solemn dirge on their way to the pier.

Next were many of the men who served in World War I.

Then came the veterans of the Spanish-American War, followed by our local Boy Scouts..

The grammar school’s primary grades marched, with each child carrying a bouquet of flowers. Behind the children were the Camp Fire Girls.

Main Street was lined with people as city officials passed by. Several hundred spectators followed the end of the parade to the pier, where a ceremony for the fallen sailors would take place.

Rev. W.G. Smith addressed the crowd with an appeal for all to remember the valorous deeds of those who gave their lives in war.

“If there is a word that is in our hearts today more than any other, it is the word ‘remember,’” Rev. Smith told those gathered around the pier.

With heads bared and bowed, the crowd listened to Rev. Smith deliver an invocation.

A lone bugler sounded “Taps,” and as the last sounds drifted across the water the grammar school children and members of the Women’s Relief Corps cast thousands of roses, lilies and carnations onto the water, and soon the pier was surrounded by a thick layer of sweet-smelling blossoms.

After the ceremony, the Women’s Relief Corps and the Daughters of Veterans drove the old-timers of the Grand Army of the Republic to the Huntington Beach Cemetery (Good Shepard Cemetery) to place flowers on the graves of friends and relatives.

Our American Legion Post sent a delegation to the cemetery in Santa Ana to remember their comrades who were buried there. When they returned to Huntington Beach that afternoon, they enjoyed a program of patriotic music played by the municipal band at the bandstand on the beach.

Today there are no long lines of marchers parading down Main Streets in America and fewer children remembering a parent by placing a bouquet of homegrown flowers at the headstone of a soldier or sailor.