Unnamed Parade Marchers

Quentin and Deacon discuss the time the black man marched in the parade "on Decoration Day" (82). Decoration Day was the southern name for Memorial Day, originally created to honor the veterans of the Civil War and in 1910 would have been celebrated on the last Monday of May. Deacon mentions both "the old vet'runs" and the "ladies" who organize the celebration (98). Deacon was was wearing a "G.A.R. uniform," i.e. the uniform of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union army (82). Several hundred thousand African Americans did wear that uniform and serve in the Civil War, though it seems unlikely that Deacon himself was one of them. (The title of "Deacon" is itself another example of the way he invents his life story.)