Parades, picnics, family, friends. Memorial Day and all its festivities not only signify the unofficial start of summer, but also offer a moment to reflect on the sacrifices the men, women, and families of our military have made and continue to make for our country.
Celebrate Memorial Day, “Susquehanna Style.” Use our list of local parades and events to find the one nearest to you or to try something new. Read the stories of three local veterans and what their service to the United States means to them. Then plan your summer kick-off with a fool-proof picnic party plan, complete with recipes and easy décor ideas.
Sriracha Molasses Barbecue
Serves 12-15
For the sauce: • 1 onion, finely chopped • 2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce • ¼ cup molasses • ¾ cup cider vinegar • 2-3 tablespoons Sriracha • ½ cup brown sugar • 3 pounds bone-in pork shoulder • 3 pounds chicken drumsticks (or other pieces, as desired) Add sauce ingredients to a sauce pan and simmer on low for at least 1 hour.
Add barbecue sauce to pork, cooking low and slow in the oven at 250°F for 8-12 hours or in the crockpot on low for 8 hours.
For the chicken, heat grill on high, then turn down heat just before arranging drumsticks on a 45-degree angle, rotating to opposite angles for perfect grill marks. Cook about 3 minutes on each side and brush with barbecue sauce on final turns.
Or, if you’re just making pork barbecue, add the sauce ingredients (cut in half) to the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours (omitting the separate sauce pan for barbecue sauce).
Grilled Berry Parfait
• 1 store-bought or homemade pound cake or angel food cake • 1 quart heavy whipping cream • ¼ cup sugar • 1 quart strawberries, sliced • 1 quart blueberries
Slice cake into wedges. Heat grill to medium heat. Brush cake with an oil that can withstand high temperatures such as grape seed, canola, or vegetable oil. Grill until marks appear, about 2 minutes on each side.
Pour cream into a stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed, adding sugar slowly. Continue to mix until stiff peaks form in whipped cream.
In a trifle dish or large vessel, layer grilled cake, berries, and whipped cream. Repeat until all ingredients are used up or vessel is full.
Tip: You can put layered leftovers in jars with lids or make the whole thing in single servings that way.
Deviled Egg Bar
Makes 24 eggs
• 12 eggs, boiled, cooled, and peeled • 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip, according to my Granny) • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar • 1 teaspoon sour cream • Salt and pepper, to taste
Cut eggs in half and use a spoon to scoop out hard yolks into a bowl. Mash yolks with a fork, adding mayonnaise, vinegar, sour cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon or pipe mixture into egg white halves arranged on a platter.
Serve with small bowls of labeled toppings of your choice such as: Old Bay, truffle salt, curry powder, capers, paprika, crab, salmon, bacon crumbles, or chives (the possibilities
are endless).
Brown Sugar and Apple Baked Beans
Serves 12
• 1 pound navy beans, soaked overnight • 1 onion, chopped • 1 gala apple, chopped (or other sweet apple variety) • 1 cup brown sugar • 1 cup apple cider vinegar • 1 tablespoon each of salt and pepper
Mix ingredients together in a baking dish and bake covered at 325°F for7 to 8 hours, adding small amounts of water throughout as needed.
Granny’s Coleslaw
Serves 12
• 1 head cabbage, shredded • 1 carrot shredded (½ cup) • 1½ cups Miracle Whip (yes, my Granny says it must be Miracle Whip) • ¼ cup sugar • ¼ cup apple cider vinegar • Salt and pepper, to taste
Using a box grater, shred cabbage and carrot and add to a large mixing bowl. Add Miracle Whip, sugar, vinegar, salt, and pepper, and stir until mixed. Add salt and pepper to taste and keep refrigerated just until serving time. (Can be made a day or two in advance.)
Pimento Mac 'n' Cheese
Serves 16
• 2 boxes elbow macaroni • 1 stick (¼ pount) butter • 3 tablespoons flour • 4 cups milk • 2 pounds cheddar cheese (I prefer a mix of Cabot sharp and light cheddar) • 2 4-ounce jars pimento peppers, chopped Cook macaroni very al dente, about 5 minutes in boiling water, drain, and set aside.
In a dutch oven or large pan that can go from oven to stove, melt butter, add flour, stir to create a roux, and then add milk slowly, continuously whisking, bringing heat up but not to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste, add cheese and stir until melted.
Gently fold noodles and chopped pimentos into the cheese sauce. Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F.
D.I.Y. Decor
Add style to your summer picnic with these easy, affordable, cute crafts. To add to the ambiance, we found denim chargers, striped plates, and napkins at the local craft store. Don’t miss the free printables you can download from our Pinterest page to add a special element of design to your party.
Signs, signs, everywhere signs
Get these printable signs designed exclusively for Susquehanna Style Insiders for your party by visiting our Pinterest page Memorial Day board: www.pinterestcom/susquehannastyl.
Remember this runner
Using red and blue streamers, cut pieces the length of your table, then weave pieces the width of your table to create a cute basket-weave runner that will wow your guests but only costs a couple bucks and a little time.
Top it off
Top off your pork barbecue sandwiches with adorable (and oh-so-easy) flags made from red and blue washi tape (found at office or craft supply stores) and toothpicks.
Bag it up
To make casual décor and extra vessels for snacks like popcorn or potato chips, simply roll the edges of a brown paper bag, then decorate with red and blue washi tape.
Star Spangled
Add a final touch of whimsy with confetti made by punching stars and dots from red, white, and blue colored paper. Shaped punches can be found at craft stores.
Local veteran stories
By Serena Stauffer Portraits by Raechel Chapman
Private 1st Class, Ken R. Geib, Lancaster
Ken R. Geib, a charismatic Brethren Village resident, sits in a wooden chair in his living room as he describes everything from getting his first television to his experiences in the U.S. Army.
Geib, 92, was born in East Petersburg and graduated from Hempfield High School in 1941. After graduation, he got his first job driving a truck in the quarry at Binkley and Ober Inc. Stone Quarry.
He was drafted in 1943 and describes his army career as “a little of this, a little of that.” His military story begins with basic training at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “[It] was six weeks of regular infantry training, then for seven weeks I went to bugle school.” Geib says. ”We had to know thirty-five calls by memory.”
After spending time at Camp Livingston in Louisiana, Geib was transferred to Camp Beauregard on limited assignment due to a problem with his vision. He was moved to other locations, including New Orleans, before he was assigned as a replacement to the 108th General Hospital. “That’s who I went overseas with,” Geib notes. He went to Camp Shank in New York, where he was scheduled to go overseas until plans changed. Instead, he moved up north to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and sailed out of Boston on the Mauritania.
He arrived in Liverpool, England, and worked at the hospital, near Darby, during World War II. “I worked on a ward, ward boy, from seven at night until seven in the morning,” Geib recalls. “At that time, there were a lot of casualties.”
In July of 1944, Geib was sent to France, but because of an abscess, he was sent back to England. After a period of hospitalization, Geib made a second trip to France. He was in a replacement pool, but never got up to his old outfit.
After that, MP Battalions were formed to guard supplies going upfront, and Geib was included. “It was three of us guys on a team and I was always in charge of the team,” Geib says. “We were on trains and we guarded supplies going different places throughout France.”
One unique experience that Geib had while in the service was that he got to see all three of his brothers while overseas. “I was one of four brothers,” Geib explains. “All four [went] overseas; all four got back. I saw the one brother in England, and then two brothers in France.”
After seeing one of his brothers board the ship to go home, Geib was anxious for his own return home. He was discharged on December 11, 1945. He still celebrates this date each year by going out to dinner with a friend.
According to Geib, there was only one day happier than the day he was discharged from the service. “That was the day I was married,” he says. Geib married his wife Grace in 1948.
After spending thirty-five months in total in the service, twenty-six of them overseas, Geib returned to his job at Binkley and Ober. Later jobs included reading meters at PPL Electric Utilites and working the press run at Lancaster Newspapers for thirty-five years before retiring in 1985.
Though he is retired, Geib remains busy. He is a seventy-seven-year member at Trinity United Church of Christ and still sings in their choir. He has been playing the saxophone for most of his life and currently plays in the Zembo String Band and the Malta Band of Lancaster. And he still plays using the same saxophone that he bought during his senior year of high school in 1941, before he began his military career and world travels.
Lieutenant Colonel, Frank Sajer, Camp Hill
While earning his undergraduate degree in economics at Boston University, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Sajer, a Camp Hill native, joined the Massachusetts Army National Guard and enrolled in the ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) as a cadet. As he grew up in a military family, he saw his father in uniform once a month. He also recognized qualities in himself that were well-fitted to the service, such as leadership, a familiarity with the outdoors, and athleticism. He felt he had a responsibility to serve his country. "The country will take care of you, but you need to take care of the country,” Sajer explains.
After he graduated from college, Sajer worked for Chase Manhattan Bank in New York before heading to North Carolina to train with the North Carolina National Guard and earn his Master of Business Administration from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1994 after living and working in New Jersey and began a career at PNC Bank as a corporate banker. Sajer also remained involved with the Pennsylvania National Guard. He was an instructor in Indiantown Gap, where he taught courses on leadership and strategy to soldiers who were training to become senior-level officers.
In July 2005, Sajer was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, which has since fallen under the control of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). He was a commander of a MTT, or military transition team, which consisted of approximately twenty men. “Our assignment was to oversee and advise an Iraqi army battalion—about 500 soldiers—in how to conduct counter insurgency operations in the city of Fallujah,” Sajer says. Their unit, along with U.S. Marines who were stationed in other sections of Fallujah, showed Iraqi soldiers how to search and locate enemy weapons, rocket propelled grenades, and improvised explosive devices. Despite an average of thirteen to twenty explosions per day in the city, only one American soldier from his unit was wounded under Sajer’s command.
The next year was spent in Fallujah living amongst the Iraqi people. Communications in the area were poor, so Sajer had only “a couple minutes to talk each week” via satellite phone and he had to "go to a base half an hour away to send email,” he says. After his eighteen-month deployment, Sajer returned home to his wife and daughters, his job at PNC Bank, and his job as an instructor with the National Guard. Two years later, he retired in 2008 as a lieutenant colonel.
Today, Sajer spends time raising his children, and he enjoys being outdoors and fishing. He is a member of the Veteran Employee Resource Group and the American Corporate Partners, which matches mentors with junior soldiers who come off duty and get civilian jobs so that they can assimilate to civilian life. In 2007, after their son returned safely from Iraq, Sajer’s parents, Major General Gerald and Helen Sajer, created the PA Wounded Warriors, Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps wounded soldiers and those in crisis to get assistance. They wanted to help those who were not as fortunate. Sajer volunteers his time as a board member with the organization and noted that last year PA Wounded Warriors, Inc., helped around fifty-five homeless soldiers find housing.
Twenty-four years of service have given Sajer a greater worldview. “We take things for granted,” he says. “We are not really exposed to terrorism. Nothing bad happens here; the things that do are human inflicted.”
As he speaks, Sajer notes the quietness of the street where he lives. “We have so much,” Sajer says; “we don’t realize what we have.”
Sergeant, Anthony Nixon, York
Text and portrait by Bri Burkhart
“When I graduated from high school in 2009, one of the biggest topics of conversation was the poor job market,” says Sergeant Anthony Nixon, a York resident. “I joined the military because I knew I needed something to help me stand out, and that’s exactly what the Army has done for me.”
Nixon joined the United States Army National Guard six years ago, directly after graduating from high school. After basic training and graduating from Advanced Individual Training, Nixon
returned to Pennsylvania to pursue a bachelor’s degree in pre-law.
“One of the major benefits of being in the military is that it has allowed me to go to college without being in debt,” Nixon says. The National Guard paid for Nixon’s college while he remained a part-time solider. Nixon said that while being a part-time solider and a full-time student didn’t come without its challenges, it helped him to gain very valuable experiences, and it was well worth it.
Typically, Nixon’s duties as a member of the guard include going to drill one weekend a month for military training. During drill, the tasks are very diverse to promote a well rounded soldier, and they include medical, marksmanship, and resiliency training.
Nixon’s training was put to the test during his senior year of college when he was deployed to Kuwait. The battalion with which Nixon was deployed was sent to supply logistical support to operations in surrounding areas. Their primary responsibility during their tour was to start shutting down military bases that were used in Operation Desert Storm. During this time, Nixon was a part of a Quick Reaction Force team that patrolled the army base and the surrounding areas to promote the safety and security of the operations.
Something unique about Nixon’s deployment experience was that he did not deploy with the battalion that he serves in today. Because of Nixon’s skill set, he was selected to deploy with another unit and was given about three months notice prior to going overseas.
“I was nervous about deploying with a group of people that I knew nothing about. We are put in a lot of situations where we have to trust each other, and I thought it would be difficult to blindly trust people I don’t know,” says Nixon. “But what I found was completely different than my expectations. Not only did I immediately trust them, but they became my family. It showed me how powerful the camaraderie among soldiers is.”
After deploying for nine months, Nixon returned home and graduated from college. Nixon hopes to continue to serve in the military and eventually serve as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps.
Recipes, styling, and text by Keely Childers Heany with Raechel Chapman / Photography by Donovan Roberts Witmer