BY MIKE MARZOLF

Special to the Tribune

It started out as Decoration Day after the Civil War. A time to decorate the graves of those lost their lives in the civil war with flowers. The holiday gradually changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day. The first use of Memorial Day came in 1882 but it was not the common name until after World War II.

In 1967 Memorial Day became the official name for the national holiday and in 1968 it was moved to the last Monday in May by Congress. It used to be May 30. But that didn’t always make for a 3-day weekend.

It is often thought of as the unofficial beginning of summer with the unofficial end of summer Labor Day.

And there is your history lesson for the day.

Prep thoughts

 Good luck to the Larned Indians and Ellinwood Eagles. Ellinwood will take the No. 3 seed into the 2-1A state softball tournament with an 18-3 record at the Green Sports Complex in Pratt starting tonight.

 The Larned baseball team will do likewise at the 3A tournament in Manhattan. They are 18-3 and at the No. 3 seed as well.

 I must admit I have a special interest in Larned and Isaiah Perez. I have watched him grow up after officiating football several years with his father. He would tag along to football games when he was young. He always had a football with him and ready to play catch. 

 Now he is a senior and this is his final time representing the orange and black of Larned High School. Good luck Isaiah. 

Former athlete/coach update

 Chance Lindley has always been a family man. From the time his daughter was born in Great Bend while coaching the Barton women basketball through his rise up the coaching ranks. His 34-4 record in his one year as the head coach here and fourth place finish are tied for the best in school history. 

 A few years back he finally had enough of the travel and time spent away from his family that coaching brought about. It was then he moved back to his hometown of Wichita opened up a Pigtails and Crewcuts saloon for kids. 

 He and his wife Melissa run the business in New Market Square in Wichita. It is a place where kids can ‘experience’ their saloon visit and have some fun. And a place where Chance can spend more time with his family.

Around campus

 All the head coaching vacancies have now been filled at Barton. Three new faces will roam the sidelines next year with the latest of those being named Tuesday when Alan Clark was promoted from assistant to head coach for women’s basketball.

 He jokingly told me his goal was to be the second longest tenured coach in women’s basketball at the school. He may have said it jokingly, but it is a great goal.

 You see other than the 12-year tenure of legend Jerry McCarty, no other coach has been at Barton more than four years. Clark is the seventh coach to run the program since Lane Lord left in 2007.

Good luck Coach Clark.

And finally

I blame Steve Webster. For a lot of things actually, but in this case I am talking about the newest pets in our house – two guinea pigs. Yes, two, giving us a grand total of three. I blame either him or Dan Heath.

 Steve’s daughter Haley is getting married in about a month and Steve had a little get-together last weekend at his house. 

 We no more than get there and he is showing my daughter Katelyn he has an empty cage. A cage that a hedgehog named Lilly lived in. It was his son David’s. David got it from Mr. Heath while doing theater at the high school. David joined the military after graduation so Steve and his lovely wife Deb took it over. 

 Lilly moved on to hedgehog heaven. Steve knows my daughter love for pets. It took him all of about 10 seconds to open the garage and let Katelyn see the empty cage, which he offered to her.

 Before I knew what was going on, Katelyn and my lovely wife Crystal had struck a deal with Steve. Katelyn could have the cage if she named her animal after Lilly.

 The original thought was to get a hedgehog. But the pet store sold the last one just before Katelyn could buy it. So Katelyn went with a female guinea pig which she named Lillian. It was a tough choice between two guinea pigs.

About three days later my still lovely wife tells me she wants the other guinea pig as a playmate for Lillian. So later that day we added Princess Buttercup. Now better known as Butter.

We already have a male guinea pig named Pillow in another cage. He needed a playmate as well so our friend Donovan got a guinea pig named Seymour that visits as well.

I am not sure what constitutes a guinea pig farm, but we have to be getting close.