{"id":15699,"date":"2016-05-30T11:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T15:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=15699"},"modified":"2016-08-26T21:38:31","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T01:38:31","slug":"blades-of-grass-and-pure-white-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=15699","title":{"rendered":"Blades of Grass and Pure White Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?attachment_id=15705\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15705\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-15705\" src=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Veterans-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"30 JC Cemetery Veterans\" width=\"237\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Veterans-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Veterans-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Veterans-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px\" \/><\/a>Linda Burton posting from Jefferson City, Missouri<\/em> \u2013 It was a solemn ceremony. <em>Taps<\/em> always makes me cry; the other music too \u2013 the <em>National Anthem, This is My Country, When Johnny Comes Marching<\/em> <em>Home<\/em>; quartets a capella, the droning of bagpipes, the two-bell toll as the names of the recent dead are called. It was meaningful too; the crowd rowed up under the shading trees; the veterans standing to the edge, Legion patches on their vests; the visitors with flowers in hand, looking for a special grave; the green, green grass and the pure white stones.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?attachment_id=15703\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15703\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15703\" src=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Stone-Grass-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"30 JC Cemetery Stone Grass\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Stone-Grass-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Stone-Grass-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Stone-Grass-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Burial dates in the Jefferson City National Cemetery go back to 1861; it started out as a burial place for Civil War soldiers from the area. The site was surveyed for classification as a national cemetery, but its official designation didn\u2019t happen until 1867, after about 350 internments. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Place in 1998; it is closed to new internments now, except for veterans and eligible family members in an existing gravesite.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?attachment_id=15704\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15704\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-15704\" src=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Unknown-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"30 JC Cemetery Unknown\" width=\"165\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Unknown-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Unknown-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/><\/a>I wandered among the markers; Site 580 marked the resting place of an Unknown; connect the dots; an unknown family somewhere, sometime, grieved. Over there a tiny pot of petunias blocked the spouse\u2019s name of Elsie L, the wife, b 1894 d 1985, a <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?attachment_id=15706\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15706\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-15706\" src=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Wife-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"30 JC Cemetery Wife\" width=\"165\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Wife-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/30-JC-Cemetery-Wife-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/><\/a>long long life; a pure white stone. Not every grave had flowers, but every one, every single one, was graced with an American flag.<\/p>\n<p>The Memorial Day program was sponsored by the Jefferson City Veteran\u2019s Council; a luncheon for veterans and their families was held at American Legion Post 5 afterwards. Next for me was the concert at First Christian Church for more inspiring music; as I headed up the hill towards the gate, the plaintive sound of <em>Taps<\/em> followed me all the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Linda Burton posting from Jefferson City, Missouri \u2013 It was a solemn ceremony. Taps always makes me cry; the other music too \u2013 the National Anthem, This is My Country, When Johnny Comes Marching Home; quartets a capella, the droning of bagpipes, the two-bell toll as the names of the recent dead are called. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1722],"tags":[1118,3269,2340],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15699"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15730,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15699\/revisions\/15730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}