Lillian Fowler Bland in 2004 (now deceased) came to Mt. Zion Cemetery
to place flowers on her husbands grave ...
... joined by more generations of her family who honored those before them
By Bob Weaver
Calhoun family members by the droves, in years past, returned to the county's 250 cemeteries for Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day.
Some still do, reflecting and honoring their deceased, placing flowers on their graves and flags on the graves of veterans.
In times past, families took live flowers from their yards, then it changed to hand-made crepe and tissue paper flowers. Today, for the most part, it's plastic flowers from the "dollar store."
In some Calhoun communities, families and churches would have "dinner on the ground," particularly for the many that would come back to the county to visit families from Ohio and other states.
Most of those that left the county after World War II are now well-entrenched in this new locations. Ar one time, they were brought back to be buried in their ancestral sod.
Critics of the practice down-play the ritual as "ancestral worship," and the Memorial Day long weekend is mostly linked to travel and barbecues.
Looking back and honoring is little associated with 21st Century culture, life centered on what's happening right now.
Unfortunately, many of Calhoun cemeteries are returning to the woods, the last generation of their caretakers having passed on. | 
