Saturday, July 11, 2009

Proud to be an American!


So the last few times we have taken CJ home, we noticed a new memorial in Laton near the cemetery. (NOT graveyard) I had my camera with me and we decided to stop and see what it is. Of coarse it had the huge lens on it which limited me in angles. Mostly because it was 200 degrees and I couldn't walk far enough away to actually take a total picture. And because a lady stopped by and we ended up in a conversation about the monument.

Anyway, I found out that hundreds of people attended a ceremony on Memorial Day to dedicate the memorial built to honor veterans from Laton, Riverdale, Burrel and the surrounding area. The unique thing is that this memorial honors both living and dead veterans from all wars. There are even some from the Civil war. I was astounded! Not only is it BEAUTIFUL it was quite moving.

I found a story in the Fresno Bee. You can read it here.

The lady told us that the canon actually was fired during the ceremony. I would have loved to see that!

The concrete is inlayed with a lovely pattern of stars!


The names are carved in granite. Interesting enough, they are not in an order.


Who knew this little stretch of road has such a grand amazing memorial?
Longing to read more about the sites around Hanford? Click here!




Around the base of the flagpole are the seals from all the branches of the military. I had to take one of the Marine Corps. Why? My dad was a Marine and I had to stand up and salute every time their anthem played...Just felt like I had to!

3 comments:

S said...

Just to let you know, the cannon didn't just randomly go off. They cannon men fired it, 3 or 4 times if I remember correctly.

Pandora Lee Pensiero said...

Oh yes. Didn't mean to imply it just went off by itself. What I meant was I thought cannon fire would be scary. No disrespect intended! Thanks for reading!

S said...

Just wanted to be sure. It was not nearly as loud as I had thought it would be. My grandfather was actually the person that started this whole thing, thinking it would take 10-15 years to finish and fearing that he would be long gone before it was. The community really pulled together to make it happen for him in 5. It really is a beautiful story.