For Some, Memorial Day Not a Holiday from Work

While many people will enjoy cookouts and swimming on the Memorial Day holiday, others will be hard at work.

Maj. Carter Greene has worked many Memorial Days in his 26 years with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.

“Generally, all of the Uniform Division works all holidays,” he said. Those who work on a holiday earn a day off which they can use later.

Police tend to deal with different types of incidents on holidays, Greene said. For example, traffic is usually lighter because people are out of town.

“Memorial Day, July Fourth, Labor Day, there's usually a lot of cookouts and outdoor activities going on,” he said. “We might have fewer calls overall, but we might have more noise complaints or alcohol violations.”

Terry Stephens, the owner of Big Dogs on the River Kayaking, will keep his business open on Memorial Day. He doesn't think his employees will be upset, he said.

“Kayaking is real seasonal, so the staff I bring in is seasonal,” he said. “They want the hours.”

Stephens owns several other businesses – Stephens Storage, Stephens Limousine Service, Big Dog Photography, Big Dog's Tire and Service Auto Sales, and RV Riverside Parking – all of which will all be closed on Memorial Day.

Although Memorial Day become a national holiday 40 years ago, it has a complicated history in the South, said Jim Cobb, a UGA history professor.

“It started more or less as a Yankee holiday, or at least a way to honor Union veterans,” he said.

Following the Civil War, white southerners “reserved their real passion for Confederate Memorial Day,” Cobb said. Black southerners were more likely to celebrate the national Memorial Day by decorating Union soldiers' graves.

Memorial Day was declared a national holiday in 1971, and by 1984, Georgia stopped recognizing Confederate Memorial Day in the wake of civil rights movements. Although Memorial Day is a national holiday, businesses have no legal obligation to close for the day, Cobb said.

Cobb said he probably wouldn't have known Memorial Day existed when he was growing up in Georgia in the 1950s and 1960s. But he became aware of it when he moved out of the state as an adult.

“I remember one time in the 70s when I was teaching in Iowa, and we had Memorial Day off,” he said. “I called a friend back here, and he was at work.”

Greene said he doesn't know much about the history of Memorial Day, but by the time he moved to Athens in 1984, the holiday was recognized here.

Stephens, who is 53 and has lived in Georgia his whole life, said he remembers always celebrating Memorial Day.

“It's kind of like Fourth of July,” he said. “I always remembered it as [a time to] go to the water, go to the lake, go to the river.”

Cobb expressed a similar view.

“There are ideological implications, but I think they're pretty much gone now,” Cobb said. “It's just a chance to go out on the lake and drink a few beers.”