Memorialized

Yesterday I took a walk around the courthouse downtown. Mind you it was for a good reason. I parked the car in a normally busy area of town. But this bright and sunny Sunday morning it was very peaceful. I stepped out of my car not sure whether to go left or right first.(More on that later) Being the lefty that I am I went left. Step after step I scanned the names on the bricks. I came across several names I recognized some I didn't. But the reason these bricks are  proudly around the lawns of the courthouse have meaning to at least one person if not more to this town and to our country.

My family has two such bricks. One for a person who never even knew where Sedalia was, the other visited several times throughout his life cut short.

Carmon L. Conner, U.S. Navy, World War II enlisted in the Navy, a young man from West Virginia. The man I knew didn't speak much about the war, worked as a mailman, loved to garden, do leather work, bake, loved Elvis and rock and roll music. He was a true "Quiet Man" his entire life. He died when I was 17 years old. Believe me, not until later in my life did I realize all that he kept to himself about, but like other men and women who served and have served since, his stories would have been able to fill volumes of pages.  Some days I think of him more than others. There are so many people in my life he never has had the chance to meet and each year that list gets longer and longer. But I am happy that he is sitting in the front row. Although he is next to someone he never met, my grandpa was the type of person he would make my brother-in-law welcome.

Harvey D. Goalder, served in the Army during the Vietnam War. He was David's oldest of three brothers. He loved anything Coke, he was married, and had two children. He was David's best man at our wedding. Although we didn't spend a lot of time with him over the years, the memories remain. As kids Harvey and the other boys spent many summers in Sedalia with family and one of his last trips during his long illness was to Sedalia our first Christmas after we moved back in 1997. By then he was very thin and frail.

Two men in different wars but with stories like all the other bricks with names. They gave up many years between them to our country so that we could live the lives we do today.

Honor Flight is a terrific group that sends war veterans to the War Memorial in Washington D.C. A group just recently returned this past week from a trip. War War II, Korea, Vietnam and others make the 20 hour turn around trip. I have thought since they started that I would love to go on a trip sometime since both my grandpa and brother-in-law are gone.  I had the chance a couple years ago to see the monument and it is a very emotional experience.

The humor in this story was that several people who also have bricks have told me it was an experience for some that took several trips around the courthouse for them because you don't know where they have placed your bricks. As I took each step, scanned the three rows I would think to myself about each war that was listed. There are already many Iraq soldiers listed. As I turned each corner still not having found our bricks, I almost began to wonder if they had done ours. So by the time I made the last turn onto 3rd St. and Lamine, the last grouping they were in. I admit I got a little teary, they gave so much, and have missed so much, but they are looking down on us each day with smiles of what we have all accomplished and will continue to strive for.

Now each time I have to go to the courthouse I will turn park in back, turn to the right and visit two honored men.