Re: The Lone Beech Garage Build Thread (60x46)
Wednesday - March 8, 2017
A few weeks ago I was perusing the local Estate Sales listed on the internet. Among these was one located only 5 miles away. As I scanned the pictures of this sale, I could see it really wasn't of interest ... except for one item.
One picture showed a table cluttered with the knickknacks that folks accumulate over the course of a lifetime. Normally I move on to the next picture pretty quickly but I paused at this one. Sitting on the table amongst the clutter was an American Flag folded in a triangle.
I was wanting a flag to display in the Lone Beech Garage and here was one a few minutes drive away.
I got up the next morning and leisurely made some coffee and then goofed around the house a bit before driving to the site of the sale. I arrived around 11 am. I entered the house and, as I walked through each room, I quickly scanned the tables for the flag. I had pretty much covered the house and was beginning to think I should have been more aggressive in my arrival as the flag had yet to be sighted.
As I entered the last room, I spotted the flag laying on a table at the room's opposite corner. I began to move towards the flag but, as I got close to it, an older lady was between me and the flag. She was examining the various "stuff" next to the flag but didn't seem to be interested in anything. I expected her to move away from that area within a few seconds.
Then she spotted the flag... she moved to it, reached down and picked it up. I was standing right next to her and I couldn't believe what was happening. She clearly was moved by it's shape and about this time she noticed me standing next to her. She turned to me and spoke.
"This flag... the way it is folded... it belonged to someone in the service." She continued, "I belong to a society... it's just laying here... I feel that I need to..." and then she turned her eyes away from me and back to the flag.
I didn't want to point out that it wasn't big enough to be a casket flag and anyone can fold a flag into a triangle so, trying to salvage a clearly deteriorating situation, I spoke, "Well, I'm interested in that flag... I'd give it a good home..." I probably should have mentioned that I was a veteran as that might have helped my case ...but I didn't. She did turn and listen to me but the flag was a mission now. She was going to rescue it!
Clutching the flag to her bosom, the lady moved away from me and towards the folks manning the checkout table.
I think my mental health would have been better off had I arrived about 10 minutes later and the flag would have been gone. Then I would never have known that an old woman had impulsively yielded to a Quixote-type quest that somehow involved this Estate Sale flag. God bless her but, based on my assessment of the situation, the lady was just going to move the flag from one dark, dusty closet in this house to another one in hers.
She got it fair & square and the whole episode gave me something to tell my parents about when I made my weekly Sunday phone call to them. When I finished telling my tale of woe my mother was chuckling but then she said, "I've got my Uncle Everett's casket flag in my cedar chest." She continued, "It's been there for over 50 years; he passed away the day Alan Shepherd went into space in 1961." "Would you like to have that flag?"
This past weekend my wife and I flew to Indiana for a quick parental visit. We hadn't seen our folks - both live in the same county - since Thanksgiving. When we got to the Lone Beech Melon Farm to visit my parents, my mom had the flag ready for me to take back to Georgia.
Private Everett Taylor Bland [1898-1961] was considered a WWI veteran but WWI ended shortly after he entered the service.
I brought the flag back to Georgia and I'm trying to figure out the best way to hang it in the LBG. In the picture I've got a couple of magnets holding it against the Stronghold cabinets in my house's attached garage. The flag is 5' x 9' and I'm pleased that it has some family history associated with it. I hope to display it near the Lone Beech Melon Farm sign.
Scott