June 2, 1930: Remembering ‘Deco’-ration Day

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

Before there was Memorial Day on the last Monday of May, there was Decoration Day on May 30.

Perhaps more true to the meaning of Memorial Day, Americans would take to cemeteries and care for, maintain, and decorate the graves of those who died in service to our country.

While social media is filled each year with the laments of those who are disgusted by the commercialization of Memorial Day, the concept, sadly, is nothing new.

As far back as 85 years ago, the Deco Restaurant chain — a Buffalo institution — was playing off the name Deco and Decoration Day.

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.