Memorial Day weekend: Many differences, a few similarities

LACONIA — Memorial Day is an important time of year for many reasons. It's when we honor the sacrifice that many military members and their families have made for the country's safety.

For many, it's also an opportunity to spend quality time with loved ones and celebrate the arrival of summer. It's not uncommon to fill Memorial Day weekend with parades to honor the fallen, family trips and backyard barbecues.

But the way people around the Lakes Region and elsewhere celebrate Memorial Day this year will look different.

With social distancing and other restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, parades have been canceled and ceremonies in honor of the fallen have either been called off as well, or are being sharply scaled back.

What traditional Memorial Day programs there are will be pared back.

In Laconia, on Monday, a small contingent from the Wilkins-Smith American Legion post will go to each of the city’s six cemeteries for brief ceremonies, before ending their tribute at the veterans’ monuments in Veterans Square, where there a wreath will be laid sometime between 9:30 and 10 a.m.

“We will make sure they are 6 feet apart,” Earl Beale, adjutant of the Legion post, said regarding the social-distancing guidelines.

Similarly, in Gilford there will be wreath-laying ceremonies in front of the World War I and World War II monuments on Potter Hill Road at 10 a.m., followed by another wreath-laying in front of the Armed Forces Memorial in Pinegrove Cemetery on Belknap Mountain Road.

Prayers and the playing of “Taps” will be part of these observances, but there will be no parade, speeches or marching bands, according to a statement issued by Town Administrator Scott Dunn.

In Meredith, the only observance will occur at 11 a.m. Monday in Hesky Park, when members of the Northeast POW/MIA Network will hold a short service.

Although there will be no large gatherings of people, Veterans Square will once again be awash with American flags as the Laconia Congregational Church will put up close to 4,000 flags on the church lawns and around a flagpole on an island in the middle of the square.

“We wanted to do it this year as a way of perking up people’s spirits at this time. as well as recognizing the sacrifices people have made and are making for us,” said the Rev. Paula Gile, the associate pastor at the Congregational Church.

Last year a small army of people planted the 12-by-18-inch flags. But this year the job will be done by just 12 church members who will be widely dispersed to ensure social distancing. Church members Greg and Hollis Thompson will be in charge of the installation.

The flags will remain in place until next Saturday, Gile said.

The Memorial Day ceremony at the State Veterans Cemetery has likewise been canceled.

In its place, the Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services in coordination with the state Veterans of Foreign Wars and VFW Auxiliary have created a Memorial Day video tribute. A wreath-laying ceremony and speeches were filmed earlier this month at the cemetery.

The video will be posted on social media throughout this coming week.

Residents at the New Hampshire Veterans Home will also have a virtual Memorial Day Tribute, with video talks by Gov. Chris Sununu, U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, and U.S. Reps. Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster. The tribute will be shown at various times on various devices at the home on Tuesday, in keeping with the home’s practice to hold the in-house observance the day after Memorial Day because so many residents typically go to the ceremonies at the Veterans Cemetery.

One local tradition of the Memorial Day weekend will continue as in years past, however.

The Weirs Beach Drive-In opened for the season Friday night, and will be open tonight and Sunday, according to owner Pat Baldi.

The drive-in opens at a time when indoor movie theaters remain closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

However COVID restrictions will limit the drive-in to a third or half its normal capacity.

Movies will be shown on three of the drive-in’s screens instead of the usual four. And cars will have to park in every other space. Also, self service in the snack bar has been replaced by employees serving the patrons, Baldi explained.

The restrictions will limit the drive-in’s capacity to about 350 cars, instead of the usual capacity, which Baldi put at between 500 and 700.

Baldi noted that the release of many new major motion pictures is being delayed as a result of the pandemic. Baldi said she has been told by her film buyer that some of the films will be released in July, with the rest expected to premiere in August.

The motion picture studios are holding back the releases in hopes that indoor theaters will be reopening by then.

Baldi said there are only about 200 drive-ins nationwide now, with only two left in New Hampshire.

“We can’t support the whole film industry,” she said of the drive-ins.

Traffic in Weirs Beach is expected to move much more smoothly now that the bridge on Route 3 over the railroad tracks has reopened to traffic.

The bridge was to reopen Friday afternoon, according to a state Department of Transportation spokesman. The bridge will be restricted to alternating one-way traffic following the holiday weekend to permit additional work to be completed, the spokesman said.