Deihl - The Story Queen Moon Heard - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Don't recall ever seeing a Memorial Day story before!  With the holiday fast coming, there's just time enough to learn a story and some facts about it.  History.com has a brief video and article giving a good overview of the holiday.  I remember older adults calling it "Decoration Day."  Their site and a few others explain the way the holiday started.  Today's story looks back the time when it was only about the Civil War, which is how the Day began.

The History site was a quick overview.  A more thorough explanation, including even the Confederate observance, is given by the Department of Veterans Affairs.  

Wonder about those red poppies sold at traffic intersections?  Go to Memorial Day's History page.

Of course, you may also want to check the ubiquitous Wikipedia article for additional information.  We no longer celebrate it on the traditional day since it became a national holiday in 1971.  Instead it's a 3 day unofficial start to summer, but it's worth remembering why it exists.

As for facts about today's story from Holiday-Time Stories, Edna Groff Diehl wrote various children's books in the early 20th century and a Pennsylvania poetry award in her name exists, but more about her isn't easily found.
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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain"should continue along with my monthly postings as often as I can manage it.