Throwback Thursday: Memorial Day weekend traditions in the Cape Fear in 1994
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — This week’s Throwback Thursday revisits Memorial Day weekend in 1994, when families across the Cape Fear celebrated the holiday with beach trips, shopping, and ceremonies honoring fallen service members.
Archive footage from May 1994 showed crowds heading to area beaches, the Carolina Beach Boardwalk, Fort Fisher, and local water parks during the long holiday weekend.
“We’ve gone by the Aquarium at Fort Fisher, we’ve spent time at the beach at Fort Fisher, and then we’ve come down here today and we’re at the waterslide and we’re going to get dinner and things before we go home,” one visitor said.
Others spent the weekend shopping at malls, department stores, and car dealerships, taking advantage of holiday sales on popular items of the era, including CRT televisions and Pontiac vehicles.
“Fourth of July, people are thinking about the picnics and the cookouts and things of that nature. This time they’re home, they’re relaxing, they pick up the paper, there’s the ad, they turn on the TV, there’s the advertisement also, and they say let’s go down there and see what’s going on,” one retailer said.
The segment also highlighted Memorial Day ceremonies and tributes honoring those who died while serving in the U.S. military.
“Our fallen veterans so loved their country, they accepted death and made immortal their patriotism and virtue,” one speaker said during a ceremony.
The segment is part of a new weekly Throwback Thursday series that will feature stories from WWAY’s historical news archives. That archive can be accessed here.
