This Memorial Day holiday weekend there are numerous events scheduled across town.
Saturday, May 25
Saturday, May 25 at 10:30am, The Cos Cob VFW Post 10112 will hold a Memorial Day ceremony in the park on Strickland Road across from the Greenwich Historical Society.
Glenville Memorial Day Parade. 2015
Sunday, May 26
The Byram Veterans annual Memorial Day Parade is set for Sunday, May 26 at 1:00 pm. The parade moves down Delavan Avenue, from the Byram Veterans Club to the Byram Shubert Library.
On Sunday, May 26, the Glenville Volunteer Fire Company and 9th District Veterans Association parade will begin at 5:00pm in downtown Glenville.
Memorial Day Parade. May 28, 2018 Photo: Audrey Thalheim
Monday, May 27
On Monday, May 27 at 8:00am, the Greenwich American Legion Post 29 annual memorial tribute will take place at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club at the end of Steamboat Road. The ceremony starts at 8:00am sharp. This year’s theme is “Our Unheralded Heroes – American Women in War.”
The widely anticipated parade along Sound Beach Avenue takes place on Monday, May 27. The parade is sponsored by the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department and begins at 10:00 am on lower Sound Beach Ave. It proceeds to Binney Park where a memorial ceremony and flag raising is held. Arrive early to find a place to park.
In Binney Park, Old Greenwich native Lt. Kristina Byrne Oberst, U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, will be the featured guest speaker.
Also on Monday, May 27 at 10:00 am, the Byram Veterans will again hold their annual ceremony to honor the 13 men from Byram School who gave their lives for their country.
That event takes place in the memorial grove at Eugene Merlot Memorial Park. Park in the Hamill Rink parking lot.
A rusty flagpole standing bare,
its brass globe to the sky.
No more its halyard line will sing, no more our flag will fly.
The empty classrooms testify to lack of use or care, with castoff books and broken desks, all scattered everywhere.
The ghost of laughter lingers still – in the darkened peeling halls; Of those who rushed to classes – within the school’s stout walls.
No more they’ll sing America, no more we’ll hear a prayer, no more the dream awakens through a teacher’s patient care.
A grove of trees stand tall and strong, providing schoolyard shade.
A plaque inscribed at each tree’s base proclaims a student’s name.
The trees are living tribute to the men who went before, each sacred to the memory of a boy who died in war.
The structure is more than just a school, much more than you can see, this building is the heart and soul of this community!
A monument to learning and our American way of life, but they have cut the heart from it, just like a surgeon’s knife.
One question is not answered – at least it’s not to me, “Is a building just a building? And a tree only a tree?”
Will progress rushing forward erase all memory of when that building was a school, and why they planted trees.
– Robert G. Lacey, 1984
