Stars and Stripes

One of my favorite United States of America flag memories, and there are many, is that of our great grandson Kaison Evans at eight years old saluting a berry flag he and I made.

Looking at this picture reminds me of the fun we had that day making the sweet flag. Of course we ate some of the berries and baby marshmallows as we constructed the stars and stripes. But the best part of the whole experience, to me, was the sight of Kaison voluntarily saluting that flag in all seriousness. Saluting the flag wasn’t enough. He jumped up, scrolled quickly on his phone to a flag with National Anthem playing and, there in our kitchen, we sang and saluted with earnestness and volume. Another time, with no berry flag to salute, Kaison instigated a flag ceremony including Granddaddy as we stood solemnly in our breakfast room singing lustily with cell phone accompaniment, “Oh, say can you see….”

It was always a thrill to stand and salute the flag as the Cairo High School Syrupmaker Band played the National Anthem before a Friday night football game. Our hearts beat with pride as our son, Will Graham, played the flugabone (baritone). Later, our granddaughter, Amanda Evans, played clarinet in the band. Will went on to play trombone in UGA’s Dixie Redcoat Band. You can imagine our emotion as we sought out our own boy in that huge stadium and saluted the flag as the band played. I loved it, too, when the band played John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Also, our grandson Charles Reeves made us proud marching smartly down the football field in the color guard of the NJROTC at a Friday night game.

This Memorial Day/Flag Day week, thanks to Jesse Hobby and other faithful and passionate veterans, flags are unfurled all along both sides of North Broad Street in our little town, Cairo, Georgia. Each flag stands for a veteran who gave the ultimate sacrifice in one of several wars–Korean, Vietnamese, and both world wars. I loved it when Charles and I, other years, could walk the street and stop by each flag, reading the veteran’s name and noting in which conflict he served. Still, we can drive by and thank God for these who gave themselves, some hardly more than children at the time, so we may enjoy precious freedoms.

Our own American flag, high on its pole by our front steps, flips and snaps in a good breeze outside my window as I type. A quick shadow of it caresses the floor. How I love that flag! Not just that particular flag (purchased by us during a historic visit to Washington, DC) but all American flags, displayed at courthouses, town squares, football stadiums, and draped on coffins of fallen heroes. The flag stands for the right to sing “God Bless America”; it stands for our freedom to be individuals of widely differing opinions; it stands for our right to work hard, to succeed, to raise children to love the Lord, to be safe and secure, to enjoy dependable governmental representation. The flag stands for, yes, our right to fly this flag high and sing the National Anthem with pride and enthusiasm at football games, at other public gatherings and–in our own breakfast room!

“You’re a grand old flag. You’re a high flying flag. And forever in peace may you wave. You’re the emblem of The land I love, The home of the free and the brave…” –George M. Cohan