Let your Freak Flag Fly

"Let you freak flag fly," a phrase coined by David Crosby in the sixties in his song, "Almost cut my hair." What he meant was, grow your hair long. Long hair represented his flag.

There are all kinds of flags. State flags, National flags, checkered flags, penalty flags, it goes on and on. Did you know, that if you are a U.S. citizen you can get a flag that has been flown over the U.S. Capitol?  Contact your Congressman, fill out a form, throw them some cash and wala, you can have your very own flag that flew over the Capitol, I mean, this might interest you if you're into that kind of thing. 

Normally I'm not. But......

As I was preparing for my daughters wedding a few weeks ago, for some reason I thought, hey, it would be cool if I have a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol, on the day of her wedding. With it comes a certificate that says, "this flag flew over the U.S. Capitol in honor of Erin and Matt on their wedding day", or something to that affect.

Anyway, after I ordered this flag, I was thinking to myself, "when will I tell her this bit of news?"

This all sounded good to me on paper. What, is my daughter a flag freak or something? No, no she isn't. I've never seen her fly a flag at her house. She never asked me when she was younger to fly the American Flag at our house. It's not that she doesn't like the flag, we were just not big flag flyers. Don't judge.

So why would I come up with such a unusual idea? Not sure. She lives in DC, she is very interested in politics, has worked on various campaigns, still points out the U.S. Capitol to me when I visit, she watches "Meet the Press" when she wants to relax, well, do you get where I was going with this?

I have heard of this flag buying program before and just assumed that Erin would be familiar with it. So, in my mind, I was at some point on her wedding day going to  say to Erin, "oh, by the way, it's quite possible that right now there is a flag flying over the U.S. Capitol building, in your honor." 

The only thing is, I forgot to tell her. And, it's probably a good thing. She had never heard of this program before.

I was catching up with Erin the other day on the phone and I said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you about the flag" and I proceeded to tell her what my plan was.  To my surprise, she had never heard of this flag buying program.  I explained, that I was thinking maybe during our Father / Daughter dance I would say to her, "Hey, by the way........"

My daughters reaction? She just started cracking up! She cracks up a lot. I like that about her.

When she stopped laughing she said, "Dad, if you started explaining, out of the blue, that you had a flag flying over the U.S. Capitol in my honor, and you did this during our Father/Daughter dance, which was Salsa, I would have thought you were having a freekin stroke." And then it was my turn to crack up.

A family with Irish roots getting married in Ireland and dancing salsa for the Father/Daughter dance?
Yep, that's how we roll.

So, Erin's flag came to my house the other day. There is a certificate too. I can't wait to give it to her, because she'll just start cracking up again.