You would think that little kids would wonder why there was a flagpole sitting in their front yard. But my sister and I never questioned it–we just accepted it. We could see the Victory Flagpole no matter if we were looking from the dining room window or if we were upstairs in the bedroom.
The enormity of it all never made a dent. We just regarded it as a fine place to play, including “hide and seek,” and “star light, star bright–hope to see the ghost tonight,” and other such childhood games.
We were happy to see a lot of people in our “front yard” on special occasions such as Armistice Day and the 4th of July. There were even bands from Henry High, Legionnaires and lots of dignitaries. And how nice of them to drop poppies from a bi-winged airplane all over our front yard, so we could make pretty little poppy bouquets. The only thing we didn’t like was when they shot guns off in a 21-gun salute, and we had to cover our ears!
Early on, we learned there was a certain etiquette for displaying the flag, the first of which was to never allow the flag to touch the ground. This was learned because my sister Lorraine and I were the ones who caught the flag every day when my grandfather, and later my uncle Herman Nordby, took the flag down. We were also taught that the flag should fly from sunrise to sunset and only at night if properly illuminated. That was all we knew.
Later on, we learned that the flag should fly in fair weather only, unless it was an all-weather flag. Also, that the flag should never be used to hold, carry or deliver anything; when flown from a pole, the blue field containing the stars goes clear to the peak; you must not display the flag with the blue field down, except to use as a distress signal. So that about covers it. We know that Old Glory will just keep flying and making us all glad that we are Americans!