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Herriman • Memorial Day was marked in Herriman, as in many Utah communities Monday, with a mixture of solemnity and down-home celebration.
A 21-gun salute rang out from Herriman City Cemetery, paying formal honor to military personnel who gave their lives for their country in wars of the past two centuries. Hundreds of people looked on, many with a hand across the heart, as a couple dozen oversized American flags whipped in the breeze of a morning whose early threat of showers gave way to sparkling sunshine.
Not far away, at Main Street Park, firefighters from the southwest Salt Lake Valley city's two fire stations came together to cook up a chuck-wagon breakfast that pulled in a steady flow of patrons starting at 7 a.m.
"It's good to be visible in the community," said Dustin Dern, a 35-year-old Unified Fire Authority captain at Herriman Station 103 and a city resident since childhood. "Herriman city has one of the best relationships going with our department. Along with the UPD [Unified Police Department], we do a lot of events together. We're pretty tight with the city."
A definite sense of community filled the pavilion. For Dern, it was evident during a break he took from serving breakfast to eating some of his own when his mom and dad, Melanie and Dev, came by with sister, Emily, and his 12-year-old son, Zac.
Melanie Dern marveled at the size of crowd, noting that when her family first started coming to Herriman's Memorial Day festivities, she used to know everyone there. Now she recognized only a handful of people, acknowledging that the fast-growing city is welcoming more and more people into its new neighborhoods.
Alan Rindlisbacher is deeply aware of the changes, too.
"I don't think I've missed Herriman Memorial Day breakfast in 35 years," he said, noting that three generations of his wife's family are buried in the city cemetery.
"Herriman has changed," said Rindlisbacher, a longtime executive with Layton Construction, which helped changed the community landscape by building the Sorenson Recreation Center. "Thirty years ago, it was a small country town. And now it's a thriving suburban city. We come to this breakfast to have a reunion with friends and family."
Pointing to Herriman Mayor Carmen Freeman wielding a spatula, Rindlisbacher added, "these small town events … to have the mayor cooking breakfast? There's nothing wrong with that."
Well, then, how about a congresswoman?
For standing next to Freeman in the serving line was none other than Rep. Mia Love, asking passers-by in the line if they wanted to add one pancake or two to their heaping plates of scrambled eggs, hash browns and various forms of meat.
While emphasizing that Memorial Day is first and foremost a day for remembering "those who gave their lives for our freedom," Love said it also afforded her an opportunity to "get out and be with the people on a social level. I get to brag about Utah and the people of Herriman. The 4th District has so many amazing people. That's why I come home every weekend."
It gave her a chance to see Tassie Bills and Tina Parkin sitting in a pioneer-style covered wagon, tabulating breakfast orders on a tablet computer. And 17-year-old Miss Herriman, Tanesha Bland, wearing a blue dress with a white sash and a sparkling tiara, going table to table to make sure all of the syrup bottles were full.
"It's really great," Bland said with the unbridled enthusiasm of a beauty-contest winner. "People are really happy to be here and to celebrate Memorial Day. Everybody keeps saying how great the food tastes."
Elsewhere along the Wasatch Front, a memorial wreath was placed at the Wall of Honor at Veterans Memorial Park in Bluffdale and taps were played for veterans from Alpine in Utah County.
Provo paid special tribute to Vietnam veterans on the 50th anniversary of the American involvement in that war.
At Fort Douglas, the Utah Chapter of the Association of the United States Army staged a traditional ceremony at the military cemetery following a march from the Fort Douglas Museum Memorial Park.