such a famein' flag
had the opportunity to visit ft. mchenry this week ~ you know, from that time baltimore saved the u.s.a. after d.c. crapped out on us. gotta tells you, i love me some star spangled banner. especially one that measures 30 by 42 feet.
the flag is a design classic. note that this 1814 flag had 15 stripes to go along with the 15 stars. later flags reverted to the 13 stripe setup. the original of course is in the nmah in d.c. ~ isn't it ironic... of course the present day one flying here is nylonz instead of cotton and wool (i think). each stripe and star is 2 feet wide. hell yeah!
ft. mchenry was the first place in the u.s. to fly the 50-star flag in 1960. {SEGUE} and although as you know i love me some hawaii, i am also quite enamouredd with our 48-star flag shown below. i think the geometry of the 48 stars just flows better. maybe we could glue north and south carolina and dakota back together to get us some 48 back.
but outside we got the good ol' 50 star goin'. this flag incidentally is a cotton flag that flew on an oil tanker that was trashed and salvaged in spain. i had a spanish room-mate who brought it with him back from spain and gave it to me. what a bueno dude.
posted by johnny dollar | 4:35 PM
4 Comments:
Did you see the film they show at the Fort, with the special ending? It's kinda corny, but it gets me every time:)
yeah, that was good stuff, with the guy drinking sherry and smoking his pipe and polishing his musket. reminds me of the patriotic stuff from 1976.
I was there one time when NO ONE stood at the end, when they open the curtains to reveal the "please stand" sign. It was strange, though I suppose only because of where it was.
My mom cried for about 5 minutes at the end of that film. Something about the light streaming through the windows as they opened the curtains to the gigantic flag... as the song was spoken... powerful.
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