Memorial Day Benicia -since 1840

both of them, 10 or 11 hours every day of the week.

Fast forward to mid April. At this point the project has provided over 3,000 masks to 28 different healthcare facilities, including hospitals all over the Bay Area, nursing homes, veterans homes, and other medical facilities. The group is focusing only on front line nurses and other healthcare workers.

As Bodil says, “It takes a village — and that village is Benicia!” At this writing, over 50 people are sewing masks at home, with other volunteers cutting fabric, organizing, making delivery runs, doing free sewing machine repairs, and donating fabric and elastic. Neighbor Darrell Lee and people from the Benicia Makerspace led by Aaron Newcomb are using 3-D printers to make “ear guards“ that fit around the back of the head and pull the elastic away from the raw ears of our heroic healthcare workers. Bodil and Larnie’s porch has become the distribution center, with social distancing practiced, frequent spritzings with rubbing alcohol, and quarantining of materials coming and going. Most importantly, nurses and health care professionals, in addition to their life-saving work, are distributing hundreds of artistic, reusable, hand-sewn masks to their coworkers.

The nurses and their colleagues send cards and notes of gratitude like this one from Gina Mac of Kaiser Vacaville: “Thank you to the Benicia sewing group for the generous donation of beautiful masks. Your masks will help us stay safe and keep our patients safe. We are grateful for your hard work. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” The nurses also send pictures of themselves wearing masks which are shared with the mask makers, much to their delight — especially when they see a nurse wearing a mask that they have made.

Everyone involved knows that these masks are far from ideal, but they are much better than the nothing that many of our nurses, EMTs, and other professionals have been given.

Bodil and Larnie are looking forward to going out of business and back to their studios, just as soon as our heroic healthcare professionals get the PPE they need and deserve.

Memorial Day 2020

THE HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY

Two years after the Civil War ended, the first national celebration of Memorial Day took place on May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery. Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.” The national observance of Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, still takes place at Arlington National Cemetery, with the placing of a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the decoration of each grave with a small American flag. It became an official federal holiday in 1971.

MEMORIAL DAY IN BENICIA

Benicia has a robust military history, dating from 1849 to 1964. The first Memorial Day celebrations in Benicia were very small and quiet and most likely began around 1868. Through time, the tradition slowly faded away from public consciousness. 30 years ago, Benicia favorite son, Harry Wassmann, the founder of the Benicia Historical Society, restored the tradition of the Memorial Day ceremony. The first couple of years attracted a few dignitaries, but as time went on, it grew to the point where the ceremony became an hourlong event with more than 400 people in attendance at the Benicia Military Cemetery.

BENICIA CEMETERY

The cemetery is known by a number of names, among them the Benicia Military Cemetery, the Benicia Army Cemetery, and the Benicia Post Cemetery. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Benicia Arsenal-Benicia Barracks Historic District. It is the oldest U.S. military post cemetery in the Pacific States. The cemetery burials date from 1849 through 1958.

This cemetery is the final resting place for 211 people; soldiers, civilians (including some women and children), and prisoners-of-war (Italian and German), as well as three dogs. Originally the graves were marked with wooden plaques but over the years became weather-worn to the point that the names could no longer be read. When renovations were done and marble headstones erected in place of the wooden ones, many then had to be marked as Unknown.

Unfortunately, this year there will be no Memorial Day ceremony, another

casualty of COVID-19. Let us still remember all of the servicemen and women who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Let us hear the lone bugle ring out the solemn notes of taps, and let us be thankful.