When I bought The Old House 18 years ago, I bought it from an elderly gentleman, (a veteran) who never lived in the house. His name was Larry, and he used it for an investment property.  But before I bought it, the place was vacant for a couple months while he did some clean up and updates, you know the usual stuff.  When I first saw the house a week after 911, I noticed that he was flying a flag off the porch, and I thought it looked great.  An old house, with a shiney new flag, in a historic district.

When I bought it, I decided I would honor him  - and the house  -  and fly a flag every day I lived there.  And I have.  I even fly an Ohio flag.  I've gone through a ton of them, but it feels like the right thing to do.

It would feel strange to me to not have it out there, it's just part of my landcape.  Neighbors walking by always comment to me how nice they look, and that makes me proud. Even when a tree hit the house, and porch last October, the first thing I did was fish the flags out of the tree rubble and planted them back on the house.  Broken poles and all.  We were not going to be denied.  A veteran walked by that same day, with tears in his eyes and thanked me for putting the tattered flags back up as they were. I knew then, I had been doing right all these years. 

It's not a statement of any kind, it just feels good.  It was there when I bought it, and will be there till my last day in the house whenever that is. And even then, I'll leave one there for the new owners.