The end of May. It generally closes with a bevy of activities.
Of course, there is the end of the school year and all the functions that go with it. Banquets, graduation, concerts, et al. In fact, when Crystal and I went to Katelyn’s Art Awards at the high school, it preceded a concert in the gym with a different concert set for the auditorium that night as well.
Then there is my father’s birthday and my parents’ anniversary. This marks year No. 59 for them. One short of Diamond Anniversary. That’s quite a while together.
I think with all the things that happen during May, Memorial Day is placed nicely on the calendar. It gives us a long weekend to kind of take a deep breath and prepare for the summer months ahead.
Speaking of anniversary’s Memorial Day official turns 50 this year, well the Act that made it a national holiday anyway. It was officially named Memorial Day in 1967 and became an official national holiday in 1968. That was part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act that moved four holidays – including Memorial Day – to a Monday for a convenient three-day weekend.
In case you are curious, Washington’s Birthday (now Presidents’ Day), Columbus Day, and Veterans’ Day were the other three. Labor Day is part of the Act as well, but it was already celebrated on a Monday.
It used to be on May 30. It started out as Decoration Day following the Civil War and gradually took on the use of Memorial Day, especially following World War II.
So take some time to honor those who have gone before us and also some time to gather yourself as we sprint into the summer months.

Prep Thoughts
What an action-packed weekend for prep sports. The final blowout weekend for prep sports for the school year. There are baseball tournaments and one rather large gathering of track and field athletes lined up.
Great Bend baseball will battle the top seed to open the 5A state tournament first thing today. The Class 2-1A state tournament gets underway this morning at the Great Bend Sports Complex as well.
And in Wichita, at Cessna Stadium, controlled mass chaos will take place in the form of the State Track and Field Championships for all classes. They bill it as the nation’s largest track meet. I have no information to confirm that, but I certainly do not doubt it.
Good Luck to all the athletes from the area this weekend. Citius, Altius, Fortius!

Former Barton
Athlete/Coach update
Lane Lord is moving on. The charismatic former Barton women’s basketball coach is headed to Texas Rio Grande Valley to take over the women’s program and the NCAA D-I school. He departs after spending 11 seasons as one of the most successful women’s basketball coaches in Pittsburg State history.
At UTRGV, as it is called, he takes over a pretty new program. The Vaqueros are a member of the Western Athletic Conference and a fairly new school. The school went into full operation in 2015 by merging UT Brownsville and UT Pan American. The Vaqueros went 14-16 last year and 4-10 in the WAC.
Lane is originally from Texas, growing up in Waco. With his daughter Logan out of high school a year, the time seemed right to make the move to D-I. It’s my ever so humble opinion he should have gotten the Wichita State last time it opened up by the school never asked me what I thought.
Good Luck, Coach. I know you will do well.

And Finally
In case you are all wondering, I did survive the graduation party and the graduation ceremony this past weekend.
I did jump in the bounce house and exited without any injuries. Although I become aware of the fact the ground is not bouncy after you leave the bounce house. It was like my legs weighed about 200 pounds apiece.
The party Saturday went well. It was nice to see Don and Beth Paden again. I hadn’t seen them for a while. They were so kind as to let us use their property for the party, although with their grandson part of the party, they really didn’t have much choice.
Then on Sunday at the actual graduation, I did sit by my wife. She did well. I think being like three blocks away from the students graduating while sitting in the football stands helped.
Of course, the chaos of trying to find your child after the graduation on the football field is fun. I felt like we were looking for a fugitive, just missing her at every stop along the way. First to the field, which wasn’t easy, then across the field, around the field, in the gym, to the lunch room and back out to the field.
I think three times we were told ‘you just missed her, she went that way.’
Eventually, we did find her and, of course, more pictures were taken. One can never have enough pictures, right?

Mike Marzolf is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at MarzolfM@bartonccc.edu.