Honoring our Great Flag

June brings summer sunshine and fun to Old Town! As we roll into these next few months, we have some great holidays to celebrate with our friends and family. Father's Day, Independence Day, the 1st official day of summer, and every day in between that we can relax and soak up the blue skies and sunshine.

There's one day in June though that many only give a passing glance to and that's June 14th, Flag Day!

At Old Town we love Old Glory and honoring her is something deeply ingrained in our DNA. So in celebration of Flag Day, we put together some fun facts about the great Red, White, and Blue.

Flag Day originated in Wisconsin in 1855! A teacher by the name of Bernard J. CiGrand brought a flag into his classroom and told his students to write an essay on its meaning. He spent the next 50 years writing in support of making Flag Day a national holiday. His dream would be realized in 1949 when congress officially declared it a holiday.

We celebrate Flag Day on June 14th because that is the actual birthday of our American Flag! The Continental Congress adopted the Stars & Stripes in 1777. Flag Day shares a birthday with another important piece of American history as well. June 14th, 1775 is also the day that Congress formally recognized the enlistment of soldiers into the Continental Army. How cool is that?!

Now some fun facts about our flag itself! We all know that the flag is made up of 13 stripes and 50 stars, which represents the 13 original colonies and 50 states. Do you know what the colors represent though?

Red- Valor

White- Liberty and Purity

Blue- Justice & Loyalty

The last version of the American Flag was submitted after Hawaii and Alaska became official states. Thousands of versions were considered, but it was the design of a 17-year-old high school student design that became the final version we see today. Robert G. Heft, from Ohio, designed his flag for a class project and it was chosen over all the others! ( Fun fact, he got a B- as a grade on the project)

There are certain respects and codes that have to be honored when you are displaying our national flag. These codes can be found here but if you're looking for just the basics, here are a few simple tips.

Make sure your flag is well lit if it's displayed at night.
Never fly the flag in bad weather.
Never display the flag upside down unless it's to signal distress.
No other flag can be placed above it.
It's a myth that the flag must be burned if it touches the ground, still try not to let touch or drag on the ground.