Vince Montoro of Easton and served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam 1968-1969, watches the Easton Area Middle School Band pass by Monday, May 27, 2019 during the 120th Anniversary Memorial Easton Parade. After the parade, area residents gathered at Scott Park to listen to the roll call of deceased and witness placing of a wreath by the Blue Star Mothers. Other municipalities like Emmaus and Bethlehem also held their parades.
Social distancing will add another somber note to Memorial Day observances
by Michelle Merlin, The Morning CallIn a typical year, Memorial Day is marked in Easton with fanfare: school bands, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars groups and others march while crowds line the streets waving flags.
But this year, with the coronavirus keeping people from gathering, the observance across the Lehigh Valley will be a much more subdued affair, with events canceled or reduced.
In Easton, five members of the color guard will march down the streets with flags, joined by a couple of other people and a handful of local officials.
Lt. Col. George Karelas of Palmer Township, a member of the Pennsylvania chapter of the State Guard Association of the United States, said the day will be difficult for veterans, who do their best to commemorate Memorial Day and Veterans Day so people don’t forget those who’ve served.
“It’s a time of mourning for people ... that didn’t make it or got wounded, some came back mentally different,” he said.
His unit will be the only one with a color guard marching in Easton. Starting at 10 a.m., they’ll march down Northampton Street to lay wreaths at the Vietnam Memorial at the circle, the Easton free bridge and Scott Park.
Veterans also flock to the events to see each other, said Karelas, who served in the Army and National Guard.
This year’s event will be more somber than usual, Karelas said. He purposefully didn’t advertise the event because it’s not safe to gather, although he wants to let veterans know that the day is still being observed.
“We’re not standing down because of this virus," he said. “We’re going to follow the guidelines and the rules the state and local authorities have on best practices for the virus, but we’re still going to go out there and represent those who can’t: those who are too old and have illness and would be concerned about doing this.”
Other groups are changing how they’re marking Memorial Day as well.
The Whitehall Guard Fife and Drum Corps, which typically marches in the Collegeville-Trappe Memorial Day Parade, will instead stay in the Lehigh Valley and perform outside five retirement homes from Bethlehem to Whitehall Township.
Ken Purcell plays the bass drum while his son, Connor, plays the fife and his other son, Corey, plays the snare. They’ll wear the red coats and three cornered hats of George Washington’s Continental Army musicians, Purcell said.
“The people in the nursing homes are really sequestered to a very high degree,” he said. “We thought it would be a nice gesture to go to play a couple patriotic tunes.”
The United States started observing Memorial Day, then called Decoration Day in 1868, three years after the Civil War, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. At the time, it was a day to decorate the war dead’s graves with flowers. After World War I, it was expanded to honor all who died in American wars. Congress in 1971 declared Memorial Day a national holiday.
Morning Call reporter Michelle Merlin can be reached at 610-820-6533 or at mmerlin@mcall.com.
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