THE FLAG

He bought what he thought would be sufficient concrete mix to hold it in the hole that he would dig. Now Tangled Oaks sits in the middle of what was a huge corn field. The lawn was never properly graded, and it is full of rocks. Making the necessary hole deep enough was beyond the strength of one person, so when a neighbor with a back hoe stopped over to help, my husband couldn't refuse. Thus the hole was created for the flag pole. Now the concrete could be mixed, applied around the flag pole base, and left to set up. The straightness of the pole was assessed many times before the concrete set hard, but alas, the pole pointed sideways instead of being exactly upright.

This led my husband, the Perfectionist, to dig ANOTHER hole and try again. This time the results were better, and he was satisfied that Old Glory would not be dishonored on its new pole. So the brand new flag was raised on the new flagpole which bore an eagle on its top. After much fretting over the light's positioning, we finally had a flag up and illuminated. But then came the predictable Tangled Oaks winds. These whipped the poor flag around mercilessly, sending it around the pole and then right over the top where the sharp points of the eagle waited to RIP IT APART!

Every patriot knows that a flag, once damaged, must be taken down. That was the case with ours, and the poor thing was taken reverently down, folded in the prescribed manner of respect, and stowed inside. Now we could wait for a Boy Scout troop to have a flag retirement ceremony. The phone number for the Scout Master, who had come to retrieve previous victims of the Tangled Oaks gales, no longer worked. But fortunately, one of my husband's co-workers had a son in the scouts, and they were camping out the following weekend and they could have a proper Flag Retirement Ceremony. I have previously written about these events, and they are beautiful. So the flag was carefully bagged and it went to work with my husband to go to his co-worker. We decided to have it dedicated to a neighbor who had died right before Christmas. He had been in the military, and his widow thought it would be appropriate.

At this point our flag pole stands without a flag atop it. The pointy eagle decoration has been removed to prevent having the replacement flag, when we get it, from being shredded. Meanwhile, Tangled Oaks was caught up in the Blizzard of 2010. My husband, returning from his runs with the blower, estimated that at the deepest parts the snow was about 1 and a half feet deep! Then he had an idea: when the weather permits it, he would go to the flag pole and affix some sort of measures to let us see the snow depth of future storms. Personally I thought it was a great idea! This way I could look out the picture window and see how much snow the dogs would have to overcome! After all, a Shih Tzu has a ground clearance of only about 4 inches, so these things are important to know.

In the past decade there have been important events that reminded us all of the importance and inspiration to be drawn from our nation's flag. Remember the 9-11 attacks? That amidst all the destruction, the people working to save lives and restore sanity to the chaos of the scene paused to join together to hang an American flag on a standing building. "America Rising", as it came to be called, became one of the best photos of the 9-11 tragedy. I agreed with that, and I bought a copy of it, framed, as a Christmas gift for my husband two years ago. Hopefully we will see another flag put up at Tangled Oaks. That will be our version of "America Rising".