Recollections of Memorial Days Past

It is a gray cloudy morning with a chill in the air; we are having the typical beach weather called June Gloom. Today in the middle of Memorial Day Weekend 2018, I cannot help but remember Memorial Days that have gone before. Many times I'd gone down to Topanga Canyon Boulevard with my husband on Memorial Day morning to watch the Topanga Days Parade put on by local businesses.  (Topanga Canyon can be found in the Santa Monica Mountains, a town wedged in between Malibu and the San Fernando Valley, in the northwesterly part of Los Angeles County.)

On some years the weather would be just like it is today, cool and cloudy, while other years it would be very hot, with 90dg weather heating up early in the morning.  One year it was so hot that kids in the parade were throwing water-filled balloons at the audience - and no one minded!

Then there were years when we wouldn't bother to walk down to the boulevard to watch the Topanga Days Parade. Instead, we would watch from our own deck atop the hill as firetrucks announced the start of the parade. The deck was always very breezy, and truthfully we needed binoculars to see much of anything!

One year my girlfriend asked me to meet her at Green Thumb Nursery in Canoga Park, California.  That year the weather got up to 100 dgs in the San Fernando Valley.  I thought I would die! How can she be looking at plants in the blazing sun?  Sweat began to form on my neck, as I dashed for shade.

Nothing says Road Trip like the announcement that Memorial Day is just around the corner. I recall years when I was running a business, that it was impossible to reach customers on the phone. Everyone was so anxious to get away from their jobs that they would plan their vacations for the unofficial "Start of Summer."

May Wildflowers of Topanga Canyon, Photo by Kathy Vilim

In Topanga Canyon I was perfectly content to be a hermit on the "First Day of Summer." I did not mind staying away from the Topanga Days Fair, with its press of people. Likewise, I did not mind declining invites to barbecues, with some kind of meat sizzling on a grill.

Instead, I recall enjoying Memorial Days in the garden, listening to the live music from Topanga Days that would waft up from across the canyon, from the hillside beyond. Many happy times were spent with a wine glass in hand listening to varying degrees of good rock -n roll music or reggae from my garden bench. My gaze softening as my mind mellowed, I would follow the movements of lizards across rock walls and wait for hummingbirds to notice the newly-filled, ruby red feeder.

As long as I had my music-filled garden and my hummingbird friends, I was happy to welcome in the unofficial First Day of Summer~