The Flag Goes By

After enjoying my morning Venti Half Caf and reading the local newspaper this morning, Gadabout unfurled his fifty-something year old Old Glory and displayed it with great care and humility above his garage. He did so sharply at 0800 hours, and snapped a picture for posterity (shown above). At nine o’clock, I reconnoitered the neighborhood and found that my flag is flying solo. Maybe everyone forgot today is the 4th of July. The editors at the newspaper may have forgotten too since the main stories on the front page were about dangerous dogs (I found this interesting), the costs of decommissioning nuclear submarines, navy day care and boat taxes. The front page of the Local section featured navy day care, a winery that suffered wind damage, Beach nightclubs seeking an injunction against regulators and a piece about the how Portsmouth’s school superintendent looks like President Bush. To the paper’s credit, they did note (in very small type) locations of fireworks at ONE location for each city in the Tidewater area.

Well, I guess the 4th of July isn’t really newsworthy. It comes around every year on the same day—it is predictable like that. Just as predictable as Christmas, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, and Saint Patrick’s Day. Other holidays float about to ensure they fall on either a Monday or Friday, so as to schedule three day weekends. But the 4th does not fall over a weekend this year, and slipping in on a Wednesday makes the prospect of a four day weekend an impossibility. This is an inconvenience for Americans since it is difficult prepare properly for annual celebrations when you have to show up at the office on Tuesday. Add the fact that Thursday is a workday too, and you have all the ingredients for a boring, lackluster affair with little to do. If you can’t drink a case of Bud at a backyard barbeque or get slammed at a nightclub, what’s the point? Right?

Okay, enough of the sarcasm. Below is Gadabout’s favorite 4th of July Poem, written by Henry Holcomb Bennett. Share it with the family, and have a safe and enjoyable holiday.

The Flag Goes By


Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than a flag is passing by.

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State:
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land’s swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;

Sign of a nation, great and strong
To ward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor,--all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.

Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!