“seasons pursuing each other,
the indescribable crowd is gathered,
it is the fourth of the seventh-month,
what salutes of cannon and other small arms!”
-walt whitman
happy 4th!
The designer of our current 50-star flag was Robert Heft. It was 1958 and there was some talk that Alaska and Hawaii were going to officially become states 49 and 50. One of his high school teachers capitalized on the current events of the day and had his students design a new flag incorporating the two new states. Inspired by Betsy Ross, (and cutting up his parents’ flag), Heft did just that, arranging the stars so it wasn’t very evident that he had added any. His teacher gave him a B-, saying that the design was unoriginal. When Heft balked at the grade, his teacher told him that if he could get the flag adopted by Congress, he would bump the grade up to an A. Heft jumped at the opportunity, sent the flag to his congressman, and after a long campaign and a refusal to give up, he ended up getting the flag approved. Heft got his ‘A’ as promised. Since then, Heft’s original homemade flag has flown over every single state capitol building, over 88 U.S. embassies, and over the White House for five administrations. He is now deceased, but has left behind a design with 51 stars ready to go if the need arises.
happy 4th of july!
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credits: mental floss, quora, wiki, readers digest
what a year it’s been
on July 15th of last year
I put my 100+ year old cottage up for sale
through 2 sales – (the first a near miss, the second a hit)
showings, open houses, fixing, cleaning, clearing, minimizing, negotiating
a roller coaster ride
filled with lots of ups and downs
lessons learned
money spent
tears and laughs
fingers crossed
then moving and storing and staying with family
while waiting for the place I wanted to be next
hoping someone would be wiling to sell it
at just the right time
at just the right price
and with all this
somehow
it has fallen into place
here I am
exactly 1 year later
on july 15th once again
and today
I’ll be taking ownership
of the place that is exactly where I want to be
a simplified life begins
in the perfect home for me
happy to make it my own
in the ‘july’ of my life
near family, near the trees, near the water, near the town
what a wonderful difference 1 year can make.
—
“my life, i realize suddenly, is july.
childhood is june, and old age is august,
but here it is, july, and my life, this year, is july inside of july.”
-rick bass
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photo credit: mark bugnaski – MLive.com