|
 The morning stillness lent a solemn air to the scene as small groups of people began gathering in the Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery on Memorial Day. Even the sound of traffic passing on Route 724 seemed muted by the screen of trees.
At 10:00, the first strains of music could be heard and church bells rang as the short parade began from the parking lot to the firefighters’ memorial at the top of the hill.
While a few scattered raindrops fell from the overcast sky, George Emrey, of Thomas W. O’Connor American Legion Post 602, Spring City, greeted the assembled gathering. “This morning marks a new beginning,” he remarked, noting that for the first time the Legion post and Liberty Fire Company were combining ceremonies, rather than holding consecutive services.
Bill Orner III, commander of Post 602, added, “Keeping it together is a little more convenient and less cumbersome.”
“Let us take time on this day to remember, to pay tribute, to those who have died in service to our nation,” Emrey commented.
Offering the Memorial Day address, Orner reminded those gathered of the freedoms won by the sacrifice of those who have served. “Their souls go marching on,” he said. He added that the loved ones left behind have “the solemn pride of having given more.”
“All the world is debtor to them,” he remarked, urging everyone to “pledge ourselves anew to patriotic service … that those who rest in heroes’ graves may not have died in vain.”
Paul Kern, of Liberty Fire Co., noted this year is a special one for the company, as it is celebrating 125 years of service to Spring City. Also, he reported, the monument at which the ceremony was held was built 50 years ago.
Noting that “the crowd seems to be growing every year,” Kern said, “The true meaning of the day is to come out and honor those who served.”
“A volunteer is a unique individual who makes time to serve the community through Liberty Fire Co.,” he remarked.
Kern and Orner read the names of fire company and Legion members who died in the past year. Kern noted that the annual Memorial Day reading is “one of the few times these volunteers are thanked.”
Among the names was Post 602’s last surviving veteran of World War I. He was the oldest member of the post when he died this year just a day before his 104th birthday.
Following the reading of the names and the fireman’s prayer, alarm 335 was sounded. The tolling of the bell, three times, three again and then five, tells personnel to return to station. Speaking of those who died, Kern remarked, “Thank you for your dedication, return to station and rest in peace.”
The ceremonies concluded with a gun salute by the Legion firing squad and the playing of Taps.
Also participating in the program were the Spring-Ford Middle School band and Owen J. Roberts High School Junior Naval ROTC color guard.
|