[Robin Hickman]

GREETINGS !!!


Today, Friday, May 15th, 2008, is "Peace Officers' Memorial Day".


Earlier this morning, elsewhere on this site, I posted a photo of my American Flag flying at Half-Staff as per President Obama's proclamation and in keeping with the protocols of the U.S. Flag Code.


I am embarrassed to say that I had forgotten about the two Oregon Law Enforcement Officers that gave their lives in the line of duty while trying to dis-arm a bomb at a Woodburn, Oregon bank. In doing so, I neglected to honor their sacrifices by having my State of Oregon Flag flying at Half-Staff out in front of my house.


I was able to correct my oversight a couple of hours ago. I re-positioned my State of Oregon Flag on its pole so that it was at Half-Staff and used a 60 lb. concrete block to act as a Flag Holder.


Sorry about the oversight and the delay in posting photos!


PeaceOfficersMemorialDay-TwoFlags-HalfStaff-400x300.JPG


PeaceOfficersMemorialDay-2Flags-Half-Staff-400x300.JPG


Remembering their sacrifices...


Robin "Mea Culpa" Hickman

PS. Remember that tomorrow, Saturday, May 16th, 2009 (3rd Saturday in May), is ARMED FORCES DAY !!!

[mattsaccount]

As you mentioned in the other post, half staff doesn't work so well on such a short pole. If you're feeling really enthusiastic, you could buy some of these:

HALF STAFF RIBBON-American Legion Emblem Sales

Something to consider anyhow

[Robin Hickman]

Hey, Matt !

Thanks for the "Heads Up" !

Even with the limitations imposed by having a 3' Flag on an 8' pole, our "half-staff solution seems to, for the most part, work out okay.

I'm chairman of the Springfield (Oregon) Jaycees' "Flags For Patriotism" program. We post 3'x5' American Flags mounted on 8' poles in front of participating businesses on eight or more "Flag Holidays" a year.

We first used "mourning ribbons" on September 12th, 2001. One of our clients is a fabric shop and I called them up the afternoon of 9-11 to ask if they had anything like that. They said "no", but that they'd make some. The owner delivered 400 mourning ribbons that evening as I was busy lowering about 150 Flags down to half-staff. When I got done with the "half-staff" part around 3:00 AM, I used a staple gun to put two ribbons at the top of each pole. They were all ready to "fly" when the other Jaycees showed up at 6:00 AM.

We posted our Flags every day until the National Memorial Service at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

No sleep and constant grief for a week.

Robin Hickman

[mattsaccount]

Huh, interesting. I had actually never heard of the Jaycees organization, and so looked them up on Google. Assuming I have the right organization, it looks like the link to the Springfield, OR chapter is broken:

The United States Junior Chamber - Oregon

From the home page (http://www.usjaycees.org/), I simply selected "Find a chapter near you", and then selected "Oregon"

A bit more searching led me here:
Oregon Jaycees: News

I'll speculate that your organization home page is now this one:
MySpace.com - Springfield Jaycees - 32 - Female - Oregon - www.myspace.com/springfieldjaycee

Anyway, just thought you might like to know the link is broken.

[Robin Hickman]

HiYa, Matt !

Yes, I am aware of the "broken links" and the now "non-existant" Springfield Jaycees' website. Unfortunately, there isn't a darn thing I can do about it.

The Springfield Jaycees' page on MySpace is about as close as we get as far as a "home" page is concerned. The problem with it is the member who set it up is no longer a member so the page is, in effect, "un-attended". When you visit the page, I am the "Robin" listed in the members area.

The U.S. Jaycees have been on the decline over the past 20-25 years or so, and that includes the Oregon Jaycees as well. In its "hey day" (1960's & 70's), the Oregon Jaycees had over 100 Chapters. About 20 years ago, there were still over 50 Jaycee Chapters in the Oregon Jaycees. Now there are only about 10.

The Springfield Jaycees were doing "OK" up until 1996. We had over 80 members. But after back-to-back failures of our biggest annual project (The Springfield Broiler Festival) in 1995 & 1996, we lost about 2/3 of our membership.

Now, we are down to about 14 or 15 members. The last 5-6 Flags Postings I've pretty much done on my own. This coming Monday (May 25th) is Memorial Day, and as of right now, it looks like I'll be the only one doing it again. If my car breaks down again like it did back on Washington's Birthday (AKA: "Presidents' Day"), I am in for some BIG trouble!


The Flags are "ready" to go but I don't know if I am :

ReadyForMemorialDay-2009(600x450.JPG


The white concrete blocks (60 lbs. each) in the front of the Flags are for those locations where there is no place for a "permanent" flagpole holder. The blocks act as "temporary" holders. Thankfully, most of our customers have permanent ones in place!

The five boxes along the wall contain 250 of CF Flag's finest lightweight printed nylon American Flags! I bought them back in October last year to replace all of our 14-17 year old printed polyester Flags (Which, in my opinion, should have all been replaced 7 or 8 years ago!). I'd been looking for "replacement" Flags for more than 4 years! There are another 60-75 unmounted flags in the garage and I have another 50 or so upstairs in the computer room. I have over 500 American Flags here. Some belong to the Jaycees and some are mine. And, No, I am NOT a Flag Collector!

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Robin Hickman

PS. One of the "problems" with getting new Flags is you also need to get new poles to mount them on! I won't be able to afford getting the new poles until I get re-imbursed for the Flags! Oh, well..... It's ALWAYS something !!!