Decoration Day
The last Sunday in May was the annual observation of Decoration Day in my Mom’s family. It’s not that my Dad’s family didn’t observe the day, but we always spent that last May Sunday with my mom’s family and extended family at a cabin on the property where my mamaw and her siblings were raised.
We rarely missed church on Sunday mornings, but we’d sometimes go to Sunday School, then leave before service to drive about an hour and a half from our home in Cabell County into Wayne County, winding along Twelvepole Creek near Cabwaylingo State Forest to reach the cabin. While I inevitably got motion sick in the car turning on the twisting roads, arriving at the cabin felt like almost heaven.
By the time I came along, the cabin and acreage belonged to my Uncle Wayne, who was actually my granduncle, my grandmother’s brother. The cabin was a newer iteration of the cabin where they’d grown up, as the original had burned down years earlier. Steps away from the front door of the cabin was an outdoor hand pump that would gush the finest cold water known to humans. I loved pumping that water. I was a kid who grew up with the luxury of clean water magically appearing from multiple taps inside our home, and didn’t have to carry water into the home as my grandmother did as a girl, so pumping water was fun rather than work. Beside the outdoor pump was a concrete block building with a generous area outfitted with large table and benches where we ate picnic-style. Farther down a path was the outhouse complete with Sears catalog — I was never sure if it was there for humor or reading material — but it did have the modern convenience of toilet paper!
Typically our lunchtime gathering included Mamaw and Granduncle Wayne with their spouses and most of their offspring who lived within relatively easy driving distance. The food was prepared primarily by the adult women of the family, and makes me hungry thinking of everything from deviled-eggs to devil’s food cake — all heavenly food!
After lunch, most of the adults would leave in a few vehicles to visit small cemeteries in the surrounding area and place flowers on family graves. Prior to Decoration Day, some of the family had already tended to annual clearing of weeds and leaves from these remote cemetery plots. As a child I had a basic understanding that Decoration Day arose from remembering those who had died in the Civil War, but culturally for our family and many in the area, it was also a day to remember other family members who had passed and were buried in the same country cemeteries.
Most of my memories from our gatherings at the cabin included fun from playing in the creek or taking a ride in the open-air old army Jeep to go “up the creek” driving around the heavily wooded property, sometimes up to the cleared meadow of the “old home place” location. I looked forward to our cabin visit each year during my childhood, not only for the fun, but also because of the more reflective times. The quietude of sitting outside the cabin near the babbling creek, where there was no TV or radio or sounds of traffic, made it perfect for conversation. Some of my fondest memories are sitting near my beloved Mamaw and her brother, Wayne, as they talked and reminisced with each other.
I have a framed picture of the cabin with the big “D” on the chimney for the family name, Deerfield, or Derifield, depending on which family member you ask, and their respective preference for the Americanized or original British spelling. The image of the cabin evokes these memories and more when I look at it. I’m sure I’ve idealized some aspects of my memories, and that’s okay with me, as they warm my heart.
Each year, Blenko Glass produces a unique limited-edition design for the June 20th birthday of West Virginia, and last year, Blenko Glass produced a large tangerine glass cabin designed by Kelsey Murphy for the 2022 West Virginia Birthday Piece. While the Blenko cabin was not a replica of the family cabin I knew, for me it is a beautiful representation that evokes my family cabin memories. Displayed in this photo is my framed picture of the Deerfield cabin along with Blenko glass pieces representing the cabin, trees, hills, and creek. The stones in and along my representative “creek” are ones my grandmother collected from her original home along Twelvepole.
For me, Decoration Day or Memorial Day is a time to remember those who have died as members of the armed services, and it is also a time to remember loved ones and memorable life-enriching experiences. While the cabin no longer belongs to family, my cabin memories are part of me, wherever I travel.
