From the Civil War era through the period after World War II, local observances first known as Decoration Day, later associated with Armistice Day, and eventually renamed Memorial Day brought families, schoolchildren, and Legionnaires together to decorate graves and publicly honor those who were lost but not forgotten. In one community ceremony, middle-aged veterans unfolded old uniforms, set aside self-consciousness, and marched to the cemetery with renewed military bearing, briefly reliving earlier service and remembering absent comrades. A dignified businessman wore an aviator's uniform, Uncle Ray squeezed into his sailor uniform, and most others wore infantry uniforms, while frail but highly respected Legionnaire Jack Bond, who had been found alive among the dead and lived with a plate in his chest, hoisted a large flag and held it steady against the wind all the way to the cemetery through sheer determination. There the Legionnaires formed up, rifles fired in salute, the smell of spent powder lingered, and the volleys gave force to the reading of the list of the war dead, which always began with the name Abernathy.