Every year, Memorial Day weekend ushers in a preliminary summer, as Long Beach Island shakes off the cold, damp spring and welcomes back beachers, barflies and everyone in between. It’s important to remember, however, that while we rejoice at the return of Island nightlife, thousands of service members sacrificed their lives so that when we do hit the town to boogie, we do so armed with precisely 27 amendments granted to us by the U.S. Constitution.

“Wait a second,” you might be thinking. “I thought this was a music column?”