Niagara Hobby & Craft Mart

Celebrating Families, Building Traditions.... All In One Place. Focusing on products that you and your family will grow with... not grow out of. Products that children can enjoy alone, parents can enjoy with their children, and grandparents can enjoy with their grandchildren.

Alexis DeJoria Wins Again!

Niagara Hobby & Craft Mart

To Our Friend Alexis:

What a profound joy to be reading USA TODAY this morning, turning to the final page of the Sports Section.... And see the acknowledgment of your NHRA Nationals victory.....

Talent to learn, talent to progress, talent to succeed, talent to win.....

Why 241 Is Important..... And What To Do

Niagara Hobby & Craft Mart

On this day, we should remember... how we got here.  Before watching non-stop television, before commencing the grilling-feast, before viewing the fireworks, take fifteen minutes and listen to and then read the Declaration of Independence.... with your family.... especially with your children.

Listen:

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/04/534096579/a-july-4th-tradition-the-declaration-of-independence-read-aloud

Read:

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
 

Twenty-Four Neon Signs For Sale

Niagara Hobby & Craft Mart

We have working neon signs that are no longer used in our store- Most plug into the wall with included transformers.  Best offers.....

Big Savings On Vintage Built-Up Structures From Lionel, MTH, LGB, PIKO, Model Power, Aristo-Craft, Bachmann, Woodland Scenics & More

Niagara Hobby & Craft Mart

Built-Up vintage structures, scenery, rolling stock, locomotives from our G scale, O scale, HO scale and N scale model train layout! Great prices.....

Memorial Day (Decoration Day) Has More Meaning Than Most Think.....

Niagara Hobby & Craft Mart

From www.usmemorialday.org: 

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Over two dozen cities and towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day.

Regardless of the exact date or location of its origins, one thing is clear – Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war).

It is now observed in almost every state on the last Monday in May with Congressional passage of the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 – 363). This helped ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays, though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19th in Texas; April 26th in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10th in South Carolina; and June 3rd (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

In 1915, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” Moina Michael replied with her own poem:

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms. Michael. When she returned to France she made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children’s League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help.

Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their “Buddy” Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms. Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.

National Moment of Remembrance

The “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”