Meaning remains in pandemic-adjusted Wiscasset Memorial Day
Member Jim Savage holds the American Legion post flag. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54 Auxiliary President Sandra Winters leaves the wall. Also pictured, Legion member Neil Page. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54’s Cliff Hendricks, far left, Mike Barnes and John Kennedy before the wreath-laying. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Diane Munsey of American Legion Post 54’s auxiliary. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54 Cmdr. William Cossette Jr. and Clara Wentworth of Daughters of the American Revolution before the wreath-laying. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
DAR’s Clara Wentworth motions to fellow participants after laying a wreath and flower at the wall. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54 members Neil Page, left, and Jim Savage. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Participants head past the town office to the wreath-laying. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Member Jim Savage holds the American Legion post flag. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54 Auxiliary President Sandra Winters leaves the wall. Also pictured, Legion member Neil Page. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54’s Cliff Hendricks, far left, Mike Barnes and John Kennedy before the wreath-laying. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Diane Munsey of American Legion Post 54’s auxiliary. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54 Cmdr. William Cossette Jr. and Clara Wentworth of Daughters of the American Revolution before the wreath-laying. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
DAR’s Clara Wentworth motions to fellow participants after laying a wreath and flower at the wall. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54 members Neil Page, left, and Jim Savage. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Participants head past the town office to the wreath-laying. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
The pandemic took away the speeches and singing, but not the other sounds or a new one, or the meaning, this Memorial Day in Wiscasset. American Legion Post 54, its auxiliary and Daughters of the American Revolution laid wreaths at the veterans’ wall on the town office lawn as always. Legion members fired guns in unison. A Route 1 motorist peeped their horn. And the new part was Legion member Tom Stoner playing “Taps.”
Asked later how long he has been playing bugle, the Woolwich man smiled and said, “Oh, a few years.”
Post Cmdr. William Cossette Jr. told Wiscasset Newspaper minutes before the wreath-laying, “That’s one thing ... we’re going to do no matter what is put our wreaths on (the wall) and pay our respect to the veterans. That’s what today is about is paying our respects to the veterans that didn’t come home.”
The Auxiliary’s Diane Munsey, in a face mask as many were, felt the same. She said it’s too bad so many events have been canceled and people can’t do the things they usually do. “It just seems very strange.” She went shopping at Walmart a couple of weeks ago, her first visit to the Brunswick store since the pandemic broke out.
To avoid a large gathering, the post asked the public not to come. The post encourages visits to the wall.
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