Banks, Offices to Be Closed : Weekend Services Planned in Honor of Memorial Day

All banks and government offices will be closed Monday for Memorial Day, but Lindbergh Field officials are bracing for one of their busiest weekends of the year.

Federal and state courts will be closed, and city trash collection will be made one day late all next week. Post offices also will be closed.

At Lindbergh Field, airline employees are facing a three-day weekend and an estimated 150,000 people at the airport, either to catch a flight or greet visitors. With only 3,600 parking spaces, airport officials suggest that travelers leave their cars at home and arrange for a ride to the airport, either from friends or by taking a bus or cab. Officials also suggest that travelers say their “good-byes” at home rather than at the airport.

There will be several Memorial Day ceremonies over the weekend, honoring those who have died while in military service.

Beginning at 4 p.m. today, San Diego’s Vietnam War Veterans will hold an around-the-clock vigil at the Vietnam Memorial at San Diego Avenue and Twiggs Street in Old Town, reading off the names of men and women killed or reported missing in action in Vietnam. The vigil will conclude Sunday, with memorial services at 5 p.m. conducted by county Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey, a Marine Corps veteran who later served in Vietnam as a civilian.

Miniature American flags have been placed on the 47,200 grave sites at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery for services at 10 a.m. Monday. Barbara Small, director of Veterans Hospital in La Jolla, will speak.

Bishop Leo T. Maher of the San Diego Roman Catholic Diocese will celebrate a mass at 11 a.m. Monday in the chapel at Holy Cross Cemetery, 4470 Hilltop Drive.

The San Diego Veterans Assn. has planned a community picnic and rally against AIDS at noon Monday at First Unitarian Church, 4190 Front St., in Hillcrest. After the picnic, a candlelight procession will begin at 7:50 p.m. from Marston Point in Balboa Park and proceed to the Federal Building downtown.

Assemblyman Pete Chacon (D-San Diego) will speak Monday at 1:30 p.m. services at the Veterans Shrine in El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley, and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) will speak at 1:30 p.m. Monday at a Memorial Day picnic at Villa View Community Hospital, 5550 University Ave.

State Sen. Wadie Deddeh (D-Bonita) will speak Monday at 1:30 p.m. services at the Garden of Tribute in Greenwood Memorial Park, at Interstate 805 and Imperial Avenue.

Several of the county’s fishing holes--Chollas Lake, El Capitan, San Vincente, Miramar, Otay, Hodges and Lake Murray--will be open for fishing from sunrise to sunset Monday.