BEDFORD, N.Y. Three hamlets, three parades. That is the way it has been for years in Bedford, and the tradition continued in 2012.
On Monday, the Bedford Hills Memorial Day parade, sponsored by the Bedford Hills Fire Department and the Bedford Lions Club, began at Bedford Hills Elementary School and concluded at the Bedford Hills Fire Department, with a ceremony held at the Bedford Hills Community House World War I memorial.
The other two hamlets parades and ceremonies were sponsored by their respective fire departments; Katonahs was co-sponsored by the Katonah American Legion Post 1275, while Bedford Villages parade was co-sponsored by the Lions Club.
Memorial Day, first called Decoration Day, was first conceived as a way to heal the divide created by the Civil War, when, in 1868, Union General John Logan ordered that flowers be placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers who were laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery.
At the Bedford Hills ceremony, Town of Bedford Supervisor Lee Roberts spoke about her trip to Frances Normandy Beach and seeing the rows of eerily beautiful grave markers for the American soldiers who died in that pivotal World War II battle.
"In the midst of our busy lives, it is easy to forget the incredible sacrifices made by our servicemen and women in order to secure our freedom," said Roberts, as she addressed the rows of Bedford Hills firemen and EMS, local Boy Scout troops and military servicemen and women, and Bedford police who marched in the parade. "We are all in their debt."
State Assemblyman Robert Castelli told the audience that he came from a military family: he is a grandson of a World War I veteran, son of a WW II, and a Vietnam veteran himself, and his son is a colonel in army who has completed five tours in Afghanistan
"Many people see this day as simply a day for a great sale at the mall, to others a day for a barbecue and still to others a day off or work or off of school," he said, but to those who fought the wars, it is looked at as a solemn day of remembrance of those made the supreme sacrifice for the nation.
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