Windle Young and granddaughter Nicole
Photo: Bill Bishop

A former Justice of the Peace, Windle Young now stops traffic along Highway 226 in the hamlet of Ledger, North Carolina, with his outstanding dahlia crop every summer. Young generously supplies many friends and neighbors with blooms each summer. His flowers are a big part of Decoration Day rites.

Though Memorial Day is the traditional date, families and congregations in Western North Carolina observe their Decoration Days on many weekends throughout the warm months. Cleaning and decorating the ancerstors' graveyard is reason for reunion.

When the mountain skies get intensely sunny, Young pulls out parasols for his garden so the dahlias won't be singed.