Memorial Day
Dateline South Loop
05/28/2012 10:51 PM
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Wendy Cobrin's Pearl Harbor memorabilia from her dad
The big ceremony at the General Logan statue
My very long time friend Wendy Cobrin and I ended up at the definitive annual Memorial Day celebration this morning at exactly the same time. A few minutes late. I walked over from Roosevelt and State. And since she lives across the street from the General Logan statue at 9th and Michigan where the ceremony takes place every year, she didn't have far to go. Distance-wise.
Time-wise she was back in 1941.
She carried over a suitcase full of her late father, E.F. Page's USS Arizona memorabilia--he was there on the battleship on December 7, 1941--as well as a number of souvenirs she has also collected through the years concerning Pearl Harbor.
General John A. Logan was the historic general who came up with the idea of Memorial Day. So where better to have the small but very impressive, colorful, flag-infested and beautiful wreath-laying Memorial Day ceremony than right smack in front of him on the east side of Michigan Avenue on the sidewalk? Right here in the South Loop.
There were no microphones so it was hard to hear what the many dignitaries were saying--from Alderman Bob Fioretti to Father George Clements. But it was a sunny morning, full of good sentiment and it was nice to be outside--unlike some years that are marred with rain or cold. The ceremony, officially called the "General John A. Logan Monument Re-Dedication Ceremony," is presented by the Lawrence Pucci Wedgewood Society of Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Mile Association. It goes for a couple of hours and it includes a 21-gun salute, after which invited dignitaries retire for lunch in the Crystal Ballroom at the Blackstone.