National Flag Week /4

NATIONAL FLAG WEEK

CYPRESS PARK

POCOMOKE CITY, MARYLAND

The only time a flag should be allowed to twist and turn is when it dances in the wind.B



What you may not know:

Superintendent Bill East of the Dept. of Public Works for Pocomoke City along with his crew are responsible for the large flag in Cypress Park and the flags displayed along the sidewalk in downtown Pocomoke City.

Bill tries to keep two flags on hand at all times in case one becomes damaged. He tries to make sure the flag has been taken down when high winds are predicted so there will be no damage to the flag or the pole. But Eastern Shore weather is not always pretictable and it's not always convenient to lower a 20' x 30' American flag under any circumstances. Flags of this size are pricey Bill and his crew, because of their special care for the flag, are helping to save the city tax dollars and always making sure that we are able to enjoy the greatest symbol of our country.

Thanks Bill! And thank you to your crew of great workers who make sure the American flag is protected. It is always the first thing I look for when I am downtown...before the red light!

NATIONAL FLAG WEEK/3

NATIONAL FLAG WEEK

Photo was taken from inside the restaurant on March 16, 2012. I couldn't wait for the windows to be installed to take this photo! B

Here's some flag news you may not know.....

The American flag in Cypress Park measures 20' x 30'. Although the flags have never been weighed it is guessed that any of the flags will weigh close to 60 pounds. It takes at least three men to handle a flag of this size making sure it never touches the ground. The term for the task of raising and lowering the flag is "striking the colors". (please correct me if this is incorrect)

The Flag That Inspired 'The Star Spangled Banner'

Flags and beer: A Baltimore tradition

Our view: The kindness of a Baltimore brewer plays a small part in the story of America's national anthem

Written by Rob Kasper

During the Fourth of July weekend in Baltimore, there will be plenty of flags flying and beers sipped. This connection between the American flag and Baltimore beer goes back almost 200 years and played a small but interesting role in history.

During the War of 1812, seamstress Mary Pickersgill was hard at work on the large American flag that would eventually fly over Fort McHenry and inspire Francis Scott Key to write the poem that would become The Star Spangled Banner. In the summer of 1814, Washington had just been burned, and the British were turning their attention to Baltimore, then the third largest port in America and home to privateers, a nemesis of the British Navy.

The story goes that Colonel George Armistead, who was preparing the defense of the fort, felt that the only thing still needed was "a flag so large that the British should have no difficulty seeing it from a distance." Mrs. Pickersgill got the job because she was an accomplished seamstress, having learned the flag making trade in Philadelphia from her mother, Rebecca Young. She also had family connections. She was related by marriage to Commodore Joshua Barney and General John Stricker, two of the men in charge of the defense of Baltimore.

She fashioned two flags, a massive 30 foot by 42 foot flag with stars that measured two feet point to point, and a smaller 17 foot by 25 foot flag called a storm flag. In bad weather the larger flag, soaked with moisture, could be too difficult to hoist, so the smaller storm flag could be substituted.

Assembling these large flags required a lot of room, which Pickersgill's house on Queen Street, now called Pratt Street, did not have. She, however, was on good terms with a neighbor, George I. Brown, who has just bought a brewery at Lombard Street and the Jones Falls. Brown had purchased the brewery from the mayor of Baltimore, Dr. Edward Johnson. The mayor, in partnership with his son in law, Thomas Peters, had brewed an ale that pleased the populace. But eventually the mayor found the demands of simultaneously brewing and governing too heavy a load and eventually sold the brew house at auction in 1813.

Brown owned the brewery for only five years, selling it in 1818 to Eli Claggett. But in that short span he earned a small place in American history by allowing Pickersgill to stretch her material on the floor of the brewery's malt house and sew the pieces into the flag that gave us our national anthem.

Pickersgill's massive flag now hangs at the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington. The East Baltimore corner that once housed Brown's brewery, and for a time was known as Brewer's Park, is now a Marriott hotel. A painting by R. McGill Mackall hangs in Baltimore's Flag House and Star Spangled Banner Museum at the corner of East Pratt and Albemarle streets showing the seamstress working on the flag in the brewery's malt house.

While the Fourth of July in a national holiday, Baltimore has some distinctive ways to acknowledge its link to American history. Fort McHenry has recently opened a new $15 million visitors center where the stories the defense of the fort and Key's inspirational poem are dramatically told. Recordings play many different renditions of the national anthem including "To Anacreon in Heaven," the drinking song that provided the melody for Key's lyrics. Monday afternoon in the Inner Harbor, staff members of the Flag House, following the tradition of Pickersgill, will help the public assemble a flag. And in backyards around the city, adult citizens can open a cold one and toast our forbearers, brewers and patriots both.

Source;  http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-flag-and-beer-20110703,0,7235437.story

From Poem To Lyrics- "The Star Spangled Banner"

On Sept. 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem after witnessing how Fort McHenry in Maryland had endured a night of British bombardment during the War of 1812; that poem, "Defence of Fort McHenry," later became the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner," the American national anthem.

Something To Be Ashamed Of !!!

Here's something that really bugs the heck out of me and is something that NEVER needs to happen.

Christmas Eve my husband was in Pocomoke doing some last minute errands and called me from his cell phone to tell me about the horrible shape an American flag was in as it flew outside of one of the newer shopping areas.

Later in the day as we drove to dinner at a relatives home we rode by so I could take some pictures. Here is where it is and what I found......................

Now, I don't know who owns this small strip of stores and I don't really care. I do not know who works in any of these businesses. But what I DO know is that all of you are a bunch of creeps and uncaring citizens of the United States of America to allow the flag of this country to become this raveled and torn. Not to mention the fact that you don't appreciate where you live to even look at it to see if it is there or to care about it's condition! Shame on everyone of you. I have never shopped or stopped into either of those businesses and don't care to now at all.

If anyone knows who owns this area please let me know so that I may contact them to have it removed! As far as I am concerned if you don't care about the shape of your flag you can't possibly care about too much of anything.

Veteran Wins His Battle Over Flag

The same homeowners association that threatened to take legal action against Army Col. Van T. Barfoot, of Richmond, VA., has dropped its request for him to remove a 21 foot flag pole displaying the American flag. The association told Barfoot that his 21 foot flagpole violated the neighborhood's "aesthetic guidelines".

The 90-year-old Medal of Honor winner was backed by the Democratic Senators from Virginia Mark Warner and Jim Webb. In a letter last week, to the homeowners association, Senator Jim Webb urged the association to "consider the exceptional nature of Col. Barefoots service when considering his pride and determination in honoring out flag."

Not only has Army Col. Van T. Barefoot had the two Virginia senators supporting him but has been backed by veteran's organizations, blog sites, and most television stations across America and some parts of the world. Facebook even had a link titled "Let Col. Barefoot Fly the American Flag." FOX News reported 97% in favor of KEEPING the American flag.

Good for Army Col. Barefoot, who won the Medal of Honor in 1944, the Purple Heart along with other decorations since his retirement from the military in 1974.

A true American Hero! Ninety years old and still winning battles!!!