Our Flag Was Still There

Sometimes even a flag has a memory.

A few years after we moved into our first house, I told James I wanted a flagpole, one of the banner flagpoles, so it could also be used to hang seasonal banners and special ones for holidays. Accordingly, I used one of the frequent Michael's 40 percent off coupons to buy the mount, and another to buy the flagpole, and a third to purchase a summer banner. Later three more seasons would join the queue, and ones for Christmas, Easter, Hallowe'en, and Thanksgiving. James put up the mount one Saturday afternoon and we had our banner, waving summer hues over the front steps.

But I wanted a proper American flag, not a printed one, one that would last us for years to put up on Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day, one with sewn stars and stripes. Michael's had a flag like this, but it was expensive, almost $40. We were on short commons in those days and it was a big bite to take from the budget.

Happily, Labor Day was coming up, and Michael's usually had 50 percent off coupons on that day. So on that afternoon of September 3, James and I made the trip to the store and came home with the coveted flag. I happily enjoyed thinking of the very next time we could put it up.

A week later, it was September 11, 2001.

And in the midst of watching the horrific carnage on television and sending tense messages to friends online whom I knew worked in New York City, I went in the kitchen drawer for a length of twine, took the flag outside, and used the string to mount the flag at half-staff, and there it swayed in the breeze, in all its terrible beauty.

The flag still flies each Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day, but the twine remains where it was knotted on September 11.

Never forget.