Memorial Day Starts the Tennis Season

"Tennis Gang" ©Mary Montague Sikes

For many years, I looked forward to Memorial Day and the beginning of the summer tennis season. We usually had tennis tournaments over the weekend, and I played singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. It was so much fun.

Over the years, it became impossible to find others to play singles, so I joined women's doubles groups, and my husband and I drove long distances to play mixed doubles. I never liked doubles as much as singles, and I watch only singles matches in events like the French Open, Wimbledon, etc. 

We've taken tennis lessons and played in tournaments in lots of places, including the Dennis Van Der Meer Center in Hilton Head, South Carolina, at Saddlebrook in Florida, in Palm Springs, California, and many other locations.

When I wasn't on the tennis court, I sometimes painted about my favorite past-time. To the left is one of those 54" x 42" acrylic paintings I created of a group of us. I'm glad I made that painting because now it is a wonderful reminder of all those tennis court days that began on Memorial Day and ended on Labor Day. 

Memories. I can almost feel the hot air and the Virginia humidity.

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Memorial Day - Remembering the Fallen, Beginning of Summer

 

©Mary Montague Sikes

Memorial Day, 2018.

This is a day to remember the fallen heroes who fought to save the freedom Americans enjoy every day. For many years, I took Memorial Day for granted. It was a time of disruption from our daily schedule in elementary school and high school. The children usually were transported somewhere to hear speeches that meant little to them or to me at the time. It was a holiday less celebrated then than now. We didn't have the day off from school.

A few years later, Memorial Day became the start of summer for me. I fell in love with tennis, and it was the beginning of tennis season at the club where I played. I was one of the most fanatical players, running on the courts all morning while our children swam in the pool, going home to fix lunch, and returning with my husband in the evening for more matches. It was a crazy time when I spent more hours mopping rain water from the courts than sweeping dirt from our steps at home. Tennis was really popular then, so there was usually a wait time to get on the courts.

Time moves on.

Listening to the sermon in church yesterday, I realized more than ever before the importance of our fallen heroes, especially the young sailor who died on a ship off the Philippine Islands during World War II. He was the patriotic serviceman for whom Kirby Street in our little town of West Point, Virginia is named. His sacrifice made me understand more than ever why we used to salute the flags in our school classrooms and why we stand today, hand over our hearts, for the National Anthem.

I don't have time now to practice long hours to play competitive tennis. I miss it and remember the fun we had every year on Memorial Day. I look at the photograph on Facebook of the two children hugging the tombstone of their fallen soldier hero father. And I remember the true meaning of this day. I'm proud to be an American, and I am happy to be free thanks to our fallen heroes.