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While perusing my mom’s slides (I’m about 2 percent of the way through her thousands of slides), I came across a couple marked “Memorial Day 1951.” These slides were taken at the Old Mission War Memorial out by Mission Point Lighthouse, during some sort of Memorial Day event. There’s a flag guard, and people are dressed up. I think I see an American Legion flag, and of course, the American flag.
The quality’s not great, but I tried to sharpen things as much as I could after I ran it through my slide adapter – a somewhat complicated process involving a little box from Jumbl that converts the slides to images and puts them onto a SanDisk card, which I then put into my camera, send to my computer, then to Adobe Lightroom, where I do what I can with them, resize them and upload them to the Gazette website.
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I don’t recognize anyone at the event, but if you spot someone you know (or if YOU are in there), let us know in the comments section at the bottom of this story. (Apologies for the ghostly appearance of some of these folks.)
If Google is correct, Memorial Day fell on Monday, May 28, in 1951. And the way mom has the slides marked, I’m guessing these were taken ON that day.
I’m not sure when this war memorial was installed (anyone know?), but I do know it was organized by Cherry Center Grange No. 1850. On one of the plaques, it notes that the memorial is “in honor of the boys and girls of Peninsula Town who served in World War One and Two.”
I’ve included photos of the memorial below, and you’ll see names of all the folks who went off to war while their families kept the home fires burning on the Old Mission Peninsula. Andrus, Boursaw, Dohm, Lardie, Buchan, Johnson, Carroll, DeVol, Gore, Kroupa, Lardie, Tompkins and Manigold are just a few of the names listed on the memorial. Not only did they serve in the military, but these are the families who laid the foundation of the Old Mission Peninsula that we live on today.
On a personal level, my husband Tim and I are honored to have our own family listed on the memorial, including his dad Tug Boursaw (WWII), my dad Walter Johnson (WWII), my uncle Guy Johnson (WWII), and my grandma Stella Johnson’s first husband, Frank Edgecomb (WWI).
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Such living history! I’m so curious about the young girl toddler, in arms, in the forefront of the pic…..who is she….born most likely in 1950…..
On the first picture of the memorial, that is Joan Schavey (my sister), Mary Schavey (my mom) and me, Janet Schavey. My dad, Lorrie Schavey helped build that memorial. We have home movies of the dedication ceremony. Thanks for the memories.??
Thanks for the note, Jan! I would love to see those home movies at some point. Or even put them on the Gazette, if that would be ok with you. We do have a YouTube channel that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention, but it’s there.
Were you all walking forward in that photo? Tim thought it looked like some sort of ceremonial thing, the way you’re all walking together. I figured it was just that you’re all related and had the same step. 🙂
Hi Jane, You made my day with that picture. We will be in MI from July 24- August 6. Maybe we can meet somewhere and see the video. I have no idea how to put it on anything. Seriously, I am a tech retard.
Jan
What kind of format is it on right now? DVD, CD…?
It’s a DVD.
Excellent – that should be fairly easy to copy and post on the Gazette (if it’s ok with you).
So shall I bring it to you when we get there? We plan to attend Bryce’s annual reunion the first Saturday in August. We sort of planned our trip around it this year.
That would be awesome! I’ll do some research re copying DVDs and formatting for the web.
I’m looking forward to seeing you.
And we were just walking. That’s what we did. Just walked. ???
Maybe a special showing at the library.
Nice to see the names of Gary’s uncles, Everett (Eb) and Elmer Warren. His dad, Keith, was somewhat younger, so he stayed home to help run the farm.
I was looking thru the names on the memorial and what struck me was that there are so many names I’m familiar with (even if I don’t know them). With the mobility of today’s society, it’s nice that so many families have “stuck around.” “The more things change, ….”
[…] Old Mission History: War Memorial Photos Circa 1951 Old Mission History: David Murray’s WWII Peninsula News – March 1, 1944 […]
[…] Lighthouse. But I believe the war memorial was built after 1946 (my mom’s photos through this link were taken in 1951). Tell us in the comments below if you know when it was […]
[…] Point Lighthouse. But I believe the war memorial was built after 1946 (my mom’s photos through this link were taken in 1951). Tell us in the comments below if you know when it was […]