Old Glory

Lebanon, CT  2021

 

Armed Forces Flags

Chester, CT  2020

Flags Galore

New London, CT  2019

The City of New London lines the piers in the summer months with American Flags.  It makes for a pretty impressive display.

Labor Day 2018

It has been a long time since my last post.  The reason for this will become apparent in the following series of posts.  It has been long, tough summer for me battling some major health issues.  I think I finally got things under control and have found a little time and energy to resume blog posts, although I can't promise they'll be all that regular.

New London, 2018

Ok, this is most patriotic picture I have, but it was taken the weekend of Memorial Day, not Labor Day.  It was the last time I was out to do some photography before the summer.  Oh well, if I wasn't so honest, you'd all think it was Labor Day.

16 Stars and Stripes

Stonington Borough, CT  2017

Flags and Flowers

New London, CT  2017

Happy 4th of July

Mystic CT, 2017

One of the vendors on display at this year's Wooden Boat Show was the company Flags of Valor.  They are a veteran owned and operated company which makes and sells wooden American Flags.  The flags are made by combat veterans.  You can find more about them and their products here.  Have a happy Fourth of July.

9/11 We Remember

Stonington, CT  2016

Waterfront Park

New London, CT  2015

New London has a nice walkway along the Thames River.  On this particular weekend, the city was having a Maritime Heritage Festival, so the walkway was decorated with the flags seen here. 

Fourth of July

Waterford, CT  2015

Niantic, CT  2015

Old Saybrook, CT  2015

Old Lyme, CT  2015

Clinton, CT  2015

Happy Fourth of July!

Unofficial Flag

Stonington, CT

Every school child learns that the original flag of the United States contained 13 stars and stripes, representing the original 13 states.  In 1795, when Kentucky and Vermont joined the union, the number of stars and stripes was increased to 15 .  It was this flag that has become known as the "Star Spangled Banner" flag for it inspired Francis Scott Key to write the lyrics to what would become our National Anthem.  About this time, Congress decided they really needed to standardize the flag, and they realized that it would become rather unwieldily if they kept adding stars, and stripes.  Congress worked pretty slow in those days as well, and it took quite some time before they agreed on just adding a new star for each state that joined the union, while returning the number of stripes to 13 to honor the original states.  When this flag act became official in 1818, the union had grown to 20 states, so the next official flag contained 20 stars and 13 stripes.  The flag pictured here has 16 stars and stripes and therefore is not an official flag.  It's a replica of a battle flag which flew over Stonington during the Battle of Stonington on August 10, 1814, a month before Francis Scott Key penned his poem. It was made by a local Congregational church sewing circle sometime between 1796 and 1803 which would make it older than the more famous "Star Spangled Banner".  These ladies couldn't wait for an act of Congress, so they added a 16th star and stripe to recognize the state of Tennessee who joined the Union in 1796.  The original battle flag survives to this day in storage.  More can be read about this flag here.

Flag Pole and Bench

McCook Point Park, Niantic, CT

It was still pretty chilly out  when I took this picture early one Saturday morning.  Even though according to the calendar it was officially spring, the temperature that morning was a little above freezing.  At least the picture looks warmer than it was.

Remember and Pray

Flag II

Allow me one more headstone, this time from a family cemetery.  Mr Stewart was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and lived till the age of 92, which was pretty remarkable for that time.  He is one of the many Stewarts buried here, the most recent one being interred in 1905, which doesn't seem like it should be over a century ago.

Flag

It's not uncommon in this part of the country to see old cemeteries, dating back to the 1600-1700's.  Many are family cemeteries and I often find them where I least expect them.  North Stonington, I think, has close to 100 of these cemeteries, perhaps even more.