Memorial Day weekend
I had planned to go into the Mohave Desert to do some plinking with friend Ernie. I haven't fired my M93 Savage in .17 HMR nor the M1994 Winchester in .357 Mag, the replacement for my old 30/30 which has been retired to the fireplace mantle as yet.
Instead, I am heading to Hawaii to attend a memorial service for my sister-in-law that died after being hit by a car 3 months ago. I am tasked to write a eulogy for Phyllis Kakesako Matsuda who died on May 21, 2005 at the age of 64 years.
So this weekend, instead of plinking out in the desert (where it is finally cooling down after an unusual heat wave) I will be plinking on my notebook computer preparing a speech. So I spend my Memorial Day writing a memorial speech.
Phyllis had a hard life. Her generation grew up sort of in between the baby boomer and the previous "greatest generation". In Hawaii, many of her contemporaries worked blue collar jobs after high school. College wasn't considered except for a small minority. The public schools in Hawaii weren't the best for college prep and probably still isn't. The teachers tried, but the cream of the crop teachers worked the pricy private schools to which many of the more affluent families in Hawaii sent their children.
So there wasn't a professional class that addressed issues in the public school system to pressure for better education for their children. The parents of the public school kids were just happy that their kids could attend high school, unlike themselves. They never challenged the authority of the school administration to demand better courses and teachers. The professional class didn't care about "public schools".
Phyllis was a product of an inferior school system that graduated non-college capable students who entered the blue collar trades after high school. Denied a good high school education, she just entered "beauty school" so to get a job doing the hair of affluent women who went to private schools and graduated from college, marrying well and living affluently.
Years of working people's hair, then as a stocker for SEARS, she could never afford the luxury of even owning a car, and was able to buy her condo in a congested area only with the financial help of her Mom. The congested area was her doom as she was hit while crossing a busy street, in a marked crosswalk, by an inattentive driver.
How do you celebrate the life of a person that lived in the margins of society? She had a marginal life and she wasn't happy, was never able to take trips or vacations except for 2 instances in 30 or 40 years. One to visit my family twenty years ago, and the last time when she attended her niece's graduation from Vet School. So this Memorial Day, I will be plinking away writing a memorial speech.
Instead, I am heading to Hawaii to attend a memorial service for my sister-in-law that died after being hit by a car 3 months ago. I am tasked to write a eulogy for Phyllis Kakesako Matsuda who died on May 21, 2005 at the age of 64 years.
So this weekend, instead of plinking out in the desert (where it is finally cooling down after an unusual heat wave) I will be plinking on my notebook computer preparing a speech. So I spend my Memorial Day writing a memorial speech.
Phyllis had a hard life. Her generation grew up sort of in between the baby boomer and the previous "greatest generation". In Hawaii, many of her contemporaries worked blue collar jobs after high school. College wasn't considered except for a small minority. The public schools in Hawaii weren't the best for college prep and probably still isn't. The teachers tried, but the cream of the crop teachers worked the pricy private schools to which many of the more affluent families in Hawaii sent their children.
So there wasn't a professional class that addressed issues in the public school system to pressure for better education for their children. The parents of the public school kids were just happy that their kids could attend high school, unlike themselves. They never challenged the authority of the school administration to demand better courses and teachers. The professional class didn't care about "public schools".
Phyllis was a product of an inferior school system that graduated non-college capable students who entered the blue collar trades after high school. Denied a good high school education, she just entered "beauty school" so to get a job doing the hair of affluent women who went to private schools and graduated from college, marrying well and living affluently.
Years of working people's hair, then as a stocker for SEARS, she could never afford the luxury of even owning a car, and was able to buy her condo in a congested area only with the financial help of her Mom. The congested area was her doom as she was hit while crossing a busy street, in a marked crosswalk, by an inattentive driver.
How do you celebrate the life of a person that lived in the margins of society? She had a marginal life and she wasn't happy, was never able to take trips or vacations except for 2 instances in 30 or 40 years. One to visit my family twenty years ago, and the last time when she attended her niece's graduation from Vet School. So this Memorial Day, I will be plinking away writing a memorial speech.
posted by Reggie at
10:08 PM
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