Pictures here are from our Memorial Day parade and program a tradition dating back to 1919. According to one account, the first Memorial Day was observed by formerly enslaved black people, at the Washington Race Course which today is the location of Hampton Park in Charleston, South Carolina. The race course had been used as a temporary Confederate prison camp in 1865 as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers that died there. Immediately after hostilities the former slaves exhumed the bodies from mass graves and buried them in individual graves. They then built a fence around the graveyard, erected an arch and declared it a Union graveyard. Although the exact beginning of the observing of Memorial Day is difficult to pinpoint and there may be many separate beginnings, Post 106 has continued the tradition since it was first chartered.

 

 

Post Color Guard leading Memorial Day parade

 

Post Color Guard at Veterans Memorial & Park

 

Float with veterans in parade

 

Parade line-up at Post 106

 

Another float with veterans

 

Float with Unit 106 Auxiliary members

 

Trailer for dignitaries and featured speaker

 

Bleachers provided by Fair Association

 

Seymour H.S. Chorus

 

Preparing for rifle salute & Taps

 

Seymour H.S. Band

 

Paying respect during Taps

 

Each year a guest speaker is invited

 

Unit 106 performs ceremony

 

The winner of the Poppy Essay

 

Veterans Park & Memorial Committee invested in a new speaker system in 2013

 

Past Honorary Parade Marshal in a WW2 renovated jeep

 

Post 106 leads our parades and provides Military Honors for veterans

 

Unit 106 parade of colors

 

A member of the Seymour H. S. band has traditionally played Taps at all Military Funerals

 

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