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Dad: Would
you like a flagpole for your front yard?
Son: What flagpole?
Dad: Your Great Grandpa's flagpole. He lived in the oldest
house in San Bruno and had a flag pole in front made from a spar
off his ship from when he was a sea faring man. He used to haul
a Christmas tree to the top of it every year when I was a boy.
Son: Where is it?
Dad: It's stored under the old house. The people who live
there now said I can have it if I come and get it. So would you
like a flag pole for your front yard?
Son: Sounds great! How will we get it here?
Dad: We can tie it to the top of my pickup. Do you have
a flag?
Son: I got a great flag at a yard sale. It looks like
it's never been used. It's about 5 feet wide by 9 feet long,
which is an odd proportion and seems to be narrower than a standard
flag.
Dad: That's a veteran's burial flag.
It's shaped like that to cover a casket. As part of the funeral
service it's removed from the casket, folded, and presented to
the widow.
So we drove to San Bruno and brought back Great Grandpa's flagpole. It was very long and hung perilously off both ends of the truck with red warning flags. It was not what I had pictured a "spar" looking like-nicely rounded and tapered with many lustrous layers of spar varnish. Instead, it was a squared off piece of splintery 4X4 with a flaking coat of whitewash. I was not immediately inspired to install it in my front lawn. Being too long to store in the garage, I wired it to the top rail of the back fence where it stayed for 20 years. About twice a year my Dad would ask me if I had set the flagpole yet. I evaded the issue. After 10 years he presented me with a top for the pole, a tank float that he had covered with gold leaf-no doubt hoping it would be the nudge I needed to finish the job. Last summer I had to tear down and rebuild the fence because of rotten posts. Since I had to take the flagpole off in the process, it was "now or never" to install it in the front yard.
Son: Dad, I've
decided to put up my flagpole. You know more about wood and paint
than I do. What should I use on it?
Dad: Sounds like a lot of trouble. If I were you I'd cut
it up for fire wood.
