Monuments

Recently, I attended my wife's family's reunion in northwestern Pennsylvania. It had been quite a while since I've attended, so I really thought it best I look for no excuse and tag along on this one. To be perfectly candid, I was happily surprised that I had such a wonderful time.

My wife's brother pastors the two Catholic churches there, in Corry, near Erie… a small town of perhaps 6,800. I took a walk Sunday through 'downtown' armed with my ever present camera. As usual, I found several interesting things to take pictures of, not the least of which was the obligatory town square Civil War monument. Another monument that I took pictures of was erected for several volunteer firemen who had been killed in a fire almost forty years ago in Corry. There are four different memorials, I am told, in town. One at each of the two firehouses, one in the town square not far from the Civil War monument and then a beautiful one I'm assuming at the site of the fire. It reads:

In Appreciation and Recognition

of Their Supreme Sacrifice

David Apps

Richard Brigham

Jon Miller

Dennis Rockafellow

Lauren Shreve

The internet can be a wonderful thing and I learned much from it. And was touched much by it. The fire was the evening of Easter Sunday, March 29, 1970 at a Sherwin-Williams Paint store, in the "business district". It was supposed to have been a simple and "ordinary" fire. But apparently the fire - of undetermined cause - had been burning undetected in a partition for a quite a while, long before these volunteer fireman arrived. The 80 year old, long narrow 2-story building, tucked between an office building and a vacant building, was made of brick and timber and shared walls with the adjacent buildings. It had a false ceiling and it is suspected that hot fire gases collected there, and, along with the flammable paint and thinner and/or the linseed oil fumes given off from the burning linoleum floors, it all made for a deadly combination. Fifteen minutes after the volunteer firemen arrive, the building exploded, blowing out both the front and back walls.

Six firefighters were trapped in the rear, under debris, in the alley way. Five were able to free themselves. The sixth, the fire chief's son, was killed. The toll on the street side was much worse. Over a dozen firefighters were injured; many spectators were rushed to the hospital with injuries from flying glass. Firefighters and spectators fortunately were able to free several trapped victims. But unfortunately four additional young volunteer firemen were crushed to death under the wall.

I don't know these men, or their families. I am not from Corry. But I am compelled to imagine what that horrific night - a holy holiday - must have been like in that small community. Or what the coming days, months and years must have been like. What is today like for many? What is it must be like for those who remember. I can't help to think of the friends and families… especially and poignantly, the fire chief father… what they all must have felt, and numbingly didn't feel, for days, months or years. The parents of these five young volunteer firefighters must be quite old, I would think, if still alive. Wives would have remarried, girlfriends having moved on, never forgetting these lovers. Young children now grown and perhaps grandparents now, never remembering well these fathers. Faded memories at best for some. Painful memories at worse for others. Imagine being the surviving volunteer firemen, for a moment, and being call to the next fire. I've seen several pictures of the unveiling of the monument… with those firemen, wives, children, family and community all present. I cannot fully imagine what that day was like. The emotions. The sky was gray and I am sure hearts were as well.

As you drive through small town America, in addition to the more obvious cemeteries, there are many, many monuments in city parks and town squares. Almost all are driven by unseen. Many, I am sure, are seen so frequently by the residents that they are unseen as well. That grieves me. That anyone could be forgotten in a few years. And, sadly, it doesn't have to be generations. I have seen idiot tourists posing for pictures with dopey grins and rabbit ears at Ground Zero in NYC.

I am certainly not a military historian, neither am I any kind of a social historian of the Civil War era. Many put me to shame. I can't pretend. But I am both a Civil War Nut and a Genealogy Nut. And two things about reenacting I seem gravitate to is finding and savoring those moments where we could almost have traveled back to 1863 for a few seconds (maybe, just maybe, we have). The other is appreciating and recognizing that the people we reenactors portray and emulate and research were real, flesh and blood people. No different, really, than you or I today. We someday all will be but gradually fading memories as well. Do we "know" those we depict? What do we "do" with that knowledge? Do we appreciate and recognize?

Corry was established in 1861, I am told, although it had been settled for longer. The Civil War began soon thereafter and many residents left to fight. Fewer, I am sure, returned. Thus the monument in the town square. I cannot read the inscription in the photograph I took. But I imagine it is no different than any other Civil War monument's. And for me it is unnecessary. The statute of the solider, with his musket, wearing his kepi and great coat, brings to our minds quickly the men and the sacrifice - theirs and the people left at home. Reenactors understand. Nothing needs to be read. Or said.

Again, I can't read when it was erected, but would assume that many present that day knew those whom it was set there to honor. Some veterans, wives, children, family, friends and community. Imagine the emotions that day.

Forgive me if I offend and if I am incorrect. While my wife's family is Catholic, and a brother a priest, I was only one for a year and a half (Catholic, not a priest). So I might be off a bit here… or perhaps… I might be ineloquent at best. While at the reunion, we slept in the rectory, attached to one of the churches. It was pretty much impossible to forget where we were. There were constant reminders of my brother-in-law's faith and vocation. The Pope watched us sleep from his framed picture above the dresser. Several other Holy pictures were peppered in each room. Catholicism is identifiable to Protestants as having armies of statues (Jesus, his mom and step-dad along with Saints galore in every nook and cranny), the "Stations of the Cross" and Christ "still" on the Cross in every shape and size. And some would incorrectly assume that they are prayed to… even adored. But they are more reminders than anything else. Monuments if you would. We are a both a forgetful and easily distracted race. We need to have helps to recall and to focus. To appreciate and recognize. So we erect monuments and statues and headstones. Places like Gettysburg are filled with each. And truly, and ultimately, this is why reenactors reenact - military and civilians both - to appreciate and recognize. We are living historians and living monuments.