We've arrived at Memorial Day weekend, the "official" beginning of Summer. I still think of it as Decoration Day, for the holiday was called by that name until about 50 years ago. It was originally a day to decorate the graves of deceased veterans with spring flowers, especially those who had died in combat. For many years it has been a day to generally visit the cemetery and decorate the graves of friends and relatives buried there. Waterloo, N.Y., claims to be the place of origin for Decoration/Memorial Day in 1866. In the summer of 1865 a Waterloo druggist suggested that while praising the returned veterans of the Civil War, it would be well to remember those who had died by placing flowers on their graves. Their first such ceremony took place May 5, 1866, and the second on the same date in 1867.

Memorial Day is seen as the official start of summer. It is a highly anticipated three-day weekend in the long span between major holidays. It is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year and therefore local law enforcement usually spends much of the weekend patrolling the roads, cracking down on speeders and drunk drivers. With all the hustle and bustle of the summer kickoff, the actual honoring of veterans can sometimes get shunted to the background during Memorial Day weekend.

BELLEVUE Lyme Township Memorial Service will be held at 7 p.m., Sunday, at Lyme Grange Hall, U.S. 20, Lyme Township. The local American Legion post will serve as color guard. Speakers will be Matt Burr and Rev. Bruce Kent. BERLIN HEIGHTS Edison High and Berlin-Milan Middle School students will be among those marching in a 9 a.m. Memorial Day parade Monday from the middle school to riverside cemetery and back to Memorial Park. There will be music and a speaker at the cemetery, as well as a speaker at the park.

HIGHWAY PATROL An Ohio Department of Transportation mower kicked up an item May 17 which hit the vehicle driven by Christopher M. Dannemiller, 21, of 912 Armstrong Drive, Willard, who was heading south on Interstate 75 in Orange Township.

MILAN The top six academic students at Edison High School must have taken their own advice to incoming freshmen: paying attention in class and doing their homework. The graduation ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. June 3. Josh Amstutz, the son of Michael and Beverly, of Huron, has fond of memories of his math teacher for the last four years, Shirley Wallrabenstein. He recalled how Wallrabenstein would pretend to throw a temper tantrum and stomp her feet if a student gave her the wrong answer or term.

MAY 23, 1974 The top stories in the Norwalk Reflector on this day 33 years ago:

Porcupine Tree kicked butt last Friday night at the House of Blues in Cleveland. Everything clicked. The band played a great set list, had terrific sound and performed in front of a packed house.

AVERY - EHOVE students took a bite of the Big Apple and tasted sweet success at the national Business Professionals of America competition, claiming fifth and seventh places in the nation at the BPA National Leadership Conference May 9 through 13 in New York City. Placing fifth in the U.S. was the Web Site Development team of Damon Bauer, Alex Wheeler (both of Edison) and Kristi Caldwell (Monroeville). Placing seventh in the U.S. was Christopher VanFleet (Bellevue) for CISCO Systems Administrator. More than 6,000 attended the conference to participate in skill competitions, workshops, general sessions and national officer campaigns and elections.

EDISON Academic Varsity Letter: Jerrod Ackerman, Joshua Amstutz, Damon Bauer, Tyler Bolyard, Christopher Braden, Ashley Burras, Elisa Butler, Tyler Camella, Christin Close, Kevin Corso, Marcella DeChant, Kelsey Divers, Joshua Dow, Lisa Elmlinger, Cassandra Field, Paul Georgiafandis, Stephanie Gordon, Bethany Ground, Elizabeth Hurst, Jillian Johnson, Tom Knight, Kurtis Kuhl, Ross Livengood, David Lux, Nykkytta Mankin, Jennifer McCann, Mackenzie McIlrath, Mitchell McIlrath, Jane Morrow, Mara Mossman, Nathan Nemire, Kelly Olinger, Kelsey Parker, Bradley Poock, Kelly Quillen, Tyler Riddle, Marisa Roberts, Zachary Rospert, Karra Sabol, Jennifer Schloesser, Carly Schlotterer, Bryan Schmidt, Kathryn Schwab, Carrie Shover, Brittany Shupe, Caitlin Smith, Spenser Spacek, Madelyn Stevens, Bryant Strayer, Noah Sutter, Elizabeth Uther, Dominic Wells, Alexis Wheeler, David Whitacre, Cody Wiewandt, Keyanna Wolfkill, Bryan Wood. Mike and Melodie Adelman Scholarship: Kathryn Schwab.

Three local students recently participated in the the high-energy, thought-provoking Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership weekend, with the goal of inspiring Ohio's next leaders. They were Kristen Buder of Edison High School, Jeremy Peterson of Norwalk High School and Stephanie Dankelson of St. Paul High School