Memorial Day

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on May 30, 2006

You'll find moving Memorial Day remembrances all over the blogosphere. Unfortunately, I'm not in a maudlin mood. Instead, I'll simply say that I appreciate the sacrifices that have been made and continue to be made by men and women in the military and point you to this article by the Union-Tribune's Robert Caldwell.

This was the first three day weekend that I've had off in ages and I almost felt like a government employee, banker or someone else who has what I would term regular hours. I thought I'd take the extra day and head out to take some photographs since my Olympus E-500 was feeling neglected. After shooting, I sat down to enjoy Panera Bread's free wi-fi and discovered that I'd forgotten my card-reader. The biggest downside of the E-500 is that its direct camera connection is only USB 1.1. so it took nearly a half hour to transfer 1.2 GB of images to my laptop. Next time I'll remember the card reader.

Anyway, being Memorial Day, I thought I'd head out to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. It's been years since I've been there and it is a beautiful and moving site. The cemetery was understandably more crowded Monday than it normally is and I heard one person complain that the cemetery had run out of the regulation flower-holders.

Like I said, it had been years since I'd been to the cemetery and things had changed. There were many more markers surrounding the one I was looking for:

That's my grandparents' marker.

While I didn't walk around the entire cemetery, the sheer numbers of markers and headstones was a lot to take in, and Fort Rosecrans is just about out of room.

I also headed over to Balboa Park to take some pictures, I'll try to post some of those in the next couple of days. On a purely photographic note, I was quite impressed with how well the polarizing filter for my lenses worked. As you can see, the sky is a rich blue. Without the filter it'd be much lighter and less dramatic. I know the effect can be duplicated using Photoshop, but the filter is much easier and less time-consuming to use.

0 comments on “Memorial Day”

  1. Thomas Hoy served 30 years in the Marine Corps. He was a China Marine in the 1930's and was aboard the U.S.S. California at Pearl Harbor. He saw action in the battle of Leyte Gulf and off Saipan and Tinian and later served during the Korean War. His birthday, May 30, Memorial Day is very fitting. He was good Marine and a great dad and granddad. Happy Birthday, pop.

  2. My Dad's ashes are in a Columbarium facing the Pacific side. What a beautiful (and sad) place. The staff and the (dreaded non-diverse) Boy Scouts of America deservekudos every year for their efforts. I just may double my BSOA contribution to spite the F*&king ACLU and Balboa Park gay/atheists.

  3. While I didn’t walk around the entire cemetery, the sheer numbers of markers and headstones was a lot to take in,..

    Same with Golden Gate National, where my dad is buried. I never paid much attention when I was younger, bit the sight of the rows of headstones stretching off into the distance is simply amazing.

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