I have a long history with flags and flag poles. As described in the first post on this blog “A New Constellation“, my love of flags started with a neighbor of mine when I was young, John Alvis. I was like a moth to a flame with his sturdy, but simple flag pole. There’s another part of the story which hasn’t been told until now.
One year, my mother took me on vacation to our family home at Lake Tahoe. I loved going to this place and it was a part of every year of the first 22 years of my life. This particular year, sometime in the mid 1980s, Mom and I arrived back at home from our trip and a flag pole, substantially similar to Mr. Alvis’s, had been erected in front of our home. I was floored by the generosity and overjoyed that I had my own flag pole. Of course, Mr. Alvis had erected the pole while we were away. This gift meant so much to me and still does to this day.
The flag pole moved with my mother and me through three houses. When we moved to a home where we couldn’t put up a twenty foot tall flag pole, it was carefully stored in our garage. After being in the garage for a couple of years, my uncle Jeffrey Rowe, suggested we put the flag pole at the (aforementioned) family house in Tahoe. I consented, with the caveat that if we ever sold the property, that I would get the flag pole back.
That caveat was adopted and the flag pole lived happily at Tahoe until the year 2000, when it was time to sell the property. My uncle had passed away two years earlier and the sale was being handled by my great uncle, who had managed the property for much of the fifty years we had owned it. He indicated that the property was sold AS-IS and that since the flag pole was a part of the sale, I couldn’t get it back. I was devastated. I tried negotiating with him, but he was firm. I had long discussions with members of my family to no avail. My mother, however did suggest heading up in the dark of night and just taking the pole, but I wanted to be a good member of the family and I didn’t want to be the one to sour the sale (even though I didn’t want the property to sell). So I left the flag pole there. It was a difficult decision and one that I regretted for many years.
Fast forward to late 2018… I looked up the address of the owners of the property online and wrote them a letter. I described the meaning of the flag pole to me and asked if they would be willing to let me take it and replace it on their property with a shiny new one. I didn’t have much hope of getting any response, even less of getting a positive one, but I sent the letter out into the ether to see what might happen. Several months went by with no response. In the mean time, Mr. Alvis’s daughter Jeanne had offered me her father’s flag pole, which I had gladly taken and was in the process of restoring. So I was in a happy place.
Of course, that’s when I got a call from the care taker of the property at Tahoe. He said that the owners had gotten my letter and were happy to let me have my flag pole back. I asked if they would like me to replace it, and he indicated that there was no need. I was ecstatic.
On Fathers’ Day 2019, I drove the 4 hours to Tahoe with my Dad and we retrieved the flag pole. As I did with Mr. Alvis’s flag pole before we took it down, I hoisted an American flag on the pole before we began taking it down. Nothing is ever simple, so we ended up having to cut the flag pole off its base, because the connection to the concrete base had been buried. No matter. We were prepared with a sawzall and got the job done. I got to spend a few hours at this place that I loved and even was able to go for a swim in the lake. It was an amazing day and a fun adventure with my father as well.
In the summer of 2019, my wife and I decided to re-do our front yard and the process took much longer than we thought it would, so fast forward to this year and the house has been painted, the yard has been re done and a new base has been poured to accommodate a second flag pole. To ensure even height, I procured and, with the help of my neighbor, cut and threaded a piece to replace the portion that was left at Tahoe.
Yesterday, I put all the pieces together and Jack and I, after lots of effort, got the flagpole up. So today, for the first time in many years, the two flag poles are together again. They started off two houses apart and now are mere feet apart. I can’t describe my happiness at having my flag pole and being able to fly flags on it again.
Today, the Betsy Ross flag, representing the new constellation of the United States, flies on my flag pole and the current United States flag flies on Mr. Alvis’s pole. The Betsy Ross which is flying is my original Betsy Ross flag given to me by my mother shortly after Mr. Alvis gave me the flag pole.
UPDATE: The universe works in mysterious ways. Upon sending Mr. Alvis’s daughter a link to this blog, she insisted upon bringing another flag up to the house. Moments ago, she delivered me her father’s “Pine Tree Flag”, a revolutionary war flag that was first used by Washington’s Cruisers. She was kind enough to raise the flag on her father’s pole.
Cruesbreck Flags 
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