MORGANTOWN – Consider the more recent history (“recent,” as far as historians define it) of the Grand Old Flag.
In 1945, Joe Rosenthal, an Associated Press photographer whose parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants, snapped an iconic image of battle-weary Marines raising the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima in the waning days of World War II.
Just 24 years later in 1969 – again, a chronological blip in the world of any historian – America was mired in Vietnam.
And Peter Fonda wore Old Glory upside down on the back of his leather jacket in “Easy Rider,” a landmark movie that year about the disaffected sons and daughters of the Greatest Generation.
On Sept. 11, 2001, firefighters at Ground Zero echoed Rosenthal’s shot without realizing, as they raised the American flag in the rubble of the World Trade Center – twin towers, felled, in tragic overture to a new kind of fight.
Sunday is Flag Day, the national holiday that honors the weave of the Red, White and Blue, but Morgantown Elks Lodge 411 on Chestnut Ridge Road is marking the occasion early.
The lodge is holding its observances at 4 p.m. Saturday, in a gathering that will feature the presentation of colors, remarks on the historical significance of the holiday and the ritualistic burning of old, tattered flags – in accordance with military protocol.
Nationally, the Elks association has long saluted the symbol of America.
“Flag Day is one of the most meaningful traditions of our Order,” said Vickie Trickett, who is Lodge 411’s exalted ruler.
“It provides an opportunity for the community to come together in appreciation of our nation’s flag and the principles of freedom, patriotism and service it represents.”
Nationally, the Elks Lodge has venerated the flag in ceremonies every June 14 since 1907, Trickett continued.
The observance was made mandatory for every lodge in the country in 1911, in fact.
President Harry Truman, himself an Elk, put Flag Day on the books as a national holiday in 1949, as America was still in the threshold of recovery from World War II.
Admission to Saturday’s event is free, Trickett said. She encourages Scout troops, veterans and others from the community to come out.
She enjoys the traditional parade of flags from America’s history that are signature of every Elks ceremony, she said.
There’s the visually compelling “Don’t Tread on Me” offering by Col. Christopher Gasden, with its rattlesnake depiction.
And the stitching by Betsy Ross of the 13 stars, and 13 red and white stripes of the original colonies.
Follow that with a New Frontier update: 50 stars, welcoming Alaska and Hawaii, 66 years ago.
Meanwhile, AccuWeather is calling for cloudy skies Saturday – but no rain.
That’s a significant forecast, as downpours and other heavy weather in recent years have caused the cancellation of the incendiary retirement ritual for the flags that served their call.
In 2014, Trickett was launching into a primer of how Ross was enlisted to stitch the then-new American flag, when hailstones began pelting the roof of Elks Lodge 411 like bombs bursting in air.
No matter, the indoor portion of the proceedings went on and Charles Harrington took a moment.
Harrington, who came home from the fighting in Vietnam in 1968, said then he could always draw comfort from broad stripes and bright stars unfurling in the breeze.
“The American flag is everything,” the old veteran said. “It’s everything to us.”
