[Robin Hickman]

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GREETINGS !!!


One of my neighbors flies a 3'x5' American Flag 24/7 (he has a son in Iraq) from a six foot pole that's attached to the wall underneath his porchlight to the left of his front door.

His Flag is constantly furling itself around its flagpole and he's been having a terrible time keeping the Flag UN-furled. Although he can't afford to buy an anti-furling type of flagpole, he seems to have come up with an elegantly simple way of keeping the Flag fully unfurled.

He attached a length of almost invisible fishing line to the upper corner of the fly-end. The fishing line is long enough to allow the Flag to "hang free" and give it some "flying room", but short enough to prevent it from wrapping itself around the pole. I don't know how heavy or stong the fishing line is, but for now it's working beautifully!


Although I'm perfectly fine with his solution, I can't help but think that it might, in some small way, be against something in the "Flag Code".


The first thing I though of SPECIFICALLY (Highlighted In BOLD) :


§8. Respect For Flag

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.

1. The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
2. The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
3. The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
4. The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

There might be other sections that are applicable, but this is the first one I thought of.


As I wrote earlier, I'm perfectly fine with my neighbor's "anti-furling" solutuion. I was just wondering what other "interpretations" and considerations people here might have about it.


THANK YOU !!!


Robin Hickman
Eugene, Oregon, USA
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[coasterville]

That is quite a clever solution, particularly if the fishing line were to be able to break before a good gust of wind could damage the flag.

I've noticed something similar on downtown outrigger type poles - its s little bar that comes out from the pole just below the flag, and then attaches to the flag along the bottom edge about halfway out. I've always wondered what that does for flag life.

Your idea sounds similar to what Disney did with their pirate flag outside Pirates of the Caribean, its kind of hard to see in the photo but if you look close you can see some kind of teather from the bottom fly edge corner tht is affixed to a cleat on the wall below the flag. I worry about these solutions causing damage to the flag itself, but then if we were worried about that we wouldn't be using eagle finials, would we?

Oh, and being a fan of the spin pole, and having tried other auto unfurlining devices, I haven't found one that is perfect.

[Robin Hickman]

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Hi, Coasterville !


Thanx for the feedback !


Your photo reminded me of some photos I'd taken back in December, 2009, of our "neighborhood" Home Depot's Flag and it's "attachment". It was a bit of a "head-scratcher" at the time because I didn't know "exactly" what it was for.

NOW, one look at it shows it for what it is: an anti-furling device !!!


TWO Photos :

What Home Depot's Flag looks like from ground-level, including its source of over-night illumination :
Copy of P1030055.JPG


Close-Up of the Flag's "anti-furling device ("bar"?) :
Copy of P1030056.JPG


So maybe on a "home" Flag set, one could attach a thin piece of wood or a slender metal tube/bar to the pole's lower connection point and the Flag's bottom grommet, and run it halfway down the fly-length of the bottom of the Flag ???

Inventing something like that could earn the love and respect of millions of homeowners across the land (and maybe earn a few bucks, too!).


Robin Hickman
Eugene, Oregon, USA
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[coasterville]

Robin,

Your photos depcit exactly what I was talking about with the poles on those downtown buildings.

[american_flag_uk]

thats a neat idea!

During the world cup - which England lost.. and a spectacular loss it was - we had our butts kicked all the way back here, landing with a loud thud! - there was England flags out.. but not on poles.. people just opened their windows, dropped the flag out, and closed the window to secure the top!

[Robin Hickman]

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HI, AMANDA (American_Flag_UK) !!!


Long Time, No See !!!


In my neighbor's case, it seems to be working out pretty well (so far). I don't know how long the fishing line will last, but right now it's "so far, so good"!


QUOTE : "people just opened their windows, dropped the flag out, and closed the window to secure the top!"

Which means, of course, that they will have to be lightening fast when opening their windows to get their flags back !!!


Good to hear from you again !!!


Robin Hickman
Eugene, Oregon, USA
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[coasterville]

Yes, long time since I've seen you around the forums.

I don't think they need good reflexes, depending on how much of the flag the left INSIDE the window.

[coasterville]

It looks like Annin has added something like this to their catalog, a bit pricey though, its made for in ground poles,
Lemme see if I can swipe an image from them:

[Robin Hickman]

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Hey, Dave!


I don't know as that would be "OK" for a U.S. Flag or not. It looks pretty much as they way they set it up for banners, particularly banners that have words on them.

Our Home Depot's U.S. Flag is on an industrial-strength, angled pole, and it looks like the Flag has the anti-furling bar attached to its lower hem at about the half-way point between the hoist and the fly ends.

I went down there this morning to pick up a few things and, since I had my camera with me, I tried to take a few "close-ups" of the Flag and its apparatus. I'll see if I can post a couple of those pictures here a little bit later.


Robin
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[coasterville]

In their big catalog they show a US flag as one of the examples as to what you could use the product for.