As we head into the first three-day weekend of the upcoming summer season, it's good to remember why Memorial Day is observed. In 1868, it was known as Decoration Day, a day to decorate the graves of Civil War soldiers. Now it commemorates American war dead through the generations. Take some time from the picnics and attend with your family one of many ceremonies being held in our communities on Monday.

On Monday at the 3rd Street Bell in Coeur d'Alene, there will be the ringing of the bell followed by the laying of a wreath in the water by the VFW Post 889 and American Legion Post 14. At 10 a.m. a brief ceremony at St. Thomas Cemetery and at 11 a.m. a ceremony at Forest Cemetery near the Civil War statue are scheduled.Also at 11 a.m. Post Falls American Legion Post 143 will hold services at Evergreen Cemetery's veterans arch, and Hayden's Robert J. Gordon Veterans Memorial Plaza at city hall will be the site of a ceremony that includes the Albeni Pipe & Drum Corps. The Hayden ceremonies will be preceeded at 10 a.m. by a laying of the wreath at Honeysuckle Beach by the US Submarine Veterans. At 2 p.m. Monday, the Pappy Boyington Detachment of the Marine Corps League hosts Memorial Day services at Coeur d'Alene Memorial Gardens.

The Plummer American Legion will join the Coeur d'Alenes for Memorial Day ceremonies at the tribe's Veterans Memorial at the trailhead of The Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes at 9:30 a.m. All of these events are open to the public. ***

How crazy is this so-called Spring weather of ours? Silver Mountain will be open for skiing on Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.***

Kudos to Rich Houser, Val Wilcox, Ryan Davis and all involved in organizing the Jordan Johnson Memorial Fun Run and the ice cream event last Saturday for the Boys and Girls Club of Kootenai County. It was as fun as it was well-run. A favorite visual was seeing Len Crosby, Post Falls Citizen of the Year, toting a trash can around the Greyhound Park infield collecting several hundred ice cream cups afterwards.***

Today, twins Nicholas Hart and Mia Hart celebrate their 21st birthday. Today's birthday line-up also includes Lori Moreland, Victoria Vaillancourt, Meghann Cuniff, Sara Knapp, Brad Cedarbloom, Dick Haugen, Debbie Long and Kacey Short. Tomorrow Jessica Lenz and Amie LaVoie Moore are the birthday girls and Mason Bush celebrates his very first birthday. On Friday Kenny Gabriel blows out the candles; another set of twins, Greg and Joe Gilliland, celebrate; and there's another first birthday, this one belonging to Connor Rhodes. Saturday Dave Kohli turns 78, sharing a birthday with Scott Shellman, the ageless Shirley Wandrocke, Melissa Feusier, John Caylor and Tom Lewis. Sy Thompson and Star Shewey mark their birthdays on May 29. Rounding out the birthdays for this merry month of May are Michelle King, Matt Weaver, Sheila Spears, Chloe Fleming and Becky Bridges on Monday and on May 31 wish Diane Huber, Meredith Close, Lindsay Cantrell and Peggy Suenkel a happy birthday!

***THERE'S MORE: New stories and photos almost every day at More Main Street. There's a link also for adding your birthday to the Main Street Birthday Club!

***Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. She was voted Best Local Writer for 2010 by the readers of the North Idaho Business Journal. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press. More Main Street blog is at http://moremainstreet.blogspot.com. Listen to Main Street Monday on KVNI AM1080. Kerri can be reached at mainstreet@cdapress.com