Do you have a flag?

In Dressed to Kill, Eddie Izzard asked his audience, “Do you have a flag?”

Flags are a symbol of who we are, what we stand for and the things we love.

Izzard’s routine extols the virtues and power of having a flag. No one can argue with you if you have a flag; worlds can be conquered and power waves in the breeze.

It wasn’t until I had a woodshed that the idea of flying a flag appealed to me. It started with a bright yellow flower flag and has mutated into a collection of seasonal fluttering artwork.

Decorative flags such as my Halloween flag are made of a polyester material that displays the same image on either side. They’re tough and durable and stand up to summer heat and winter cold.

The most durable are the appliqued flags with many layers of fabric and stitching. When the breeze is lacking, they hold their shape very well rather than single-layer polyester, the design doesn’t display as nicely.

Toland is my favorite company for flags. The designs are compelling and colorful and they have a variety of designs for each season or occasion.

Windsocks are another form of flags and I have a lot of them. My favorites are a collection of fish windsocks that someone brought back from Japan for me almost 35 years ago. They’re blue, red and green and made of cloth and wouldn’t hold up in any type of weather but for decades I’ve had a windsock hanging on the bathroom door. If someone wants to know where the bathroom is, just look for the fish on the door.

There’s problems with windsocks: the line that holds them tangles easily on a flagpole and you’re forever dragging out the ladder to untangle it. Windsocks really only look good when flying in a stiff breeze like the giant one that used to fly from the Smith Tower in downtown Seattle. Local building codes prohibited flags on buildings in Seattle but Ivar Haglund, owner of Ivar’s Acres of Clams fought city hall and won the right to fly a 25-foot fish windsock. With Puget Sound’s continuous wind off the bay, the windsock moved like a fish swimming upstream.

Up here at the Bar B, there’s not that much wind and windsocks don’t work without it.

So, flags it is.

I recently purchased a few flags for the upcoming holiday season: Halloween, winter and Christmas to augment my summer/spring flag collection. With only one day left in October my Halloween flag will have a short lifespan on the flag pole.

My pole isn’t holding up too well; the stained flag pole has stood up against every type of weather: rain, snow, cold, heat and well, lots of dust. I need to find a way to help preserve the finish on the pole but I haven’t discovered anything yet. It’s always something.

There are disadvantages to the flags; they trigger the flood lights and can make a snapping noise in the middle of a windy night but that’s nothing to the friendliness they convey when I pull into the driveway.

So, Eddie, to answer your question, “Yes, I have a flag.”