Father’s Day Gift

My dad was a military man – a patriot through and through. He posted the flag every day though he never had a legitimate flagpole, so he had to hang it from beside our house. It wasn’t a bad setup, a perfectly fine way to present the Stars and Stripes. I look back now that he’s gone and realize what a perfect gift for him would have been. All those years; all those ties; all that garbage he pretended to appreciate, but which stayed in its original packaging and then put away into his sock drawer or some forgotten upper shelf in the garage, never to be seen again.
You know, it’s a shame we never know somebody completely until they’re gone, and then all of a sudden we have this epiphany, this breakthrough into their personality; a realization. It’s like realizing what you should have been for Halloween on November 1st. It should have been so obvious. What was dad at the core – apart from all of his “hobbies” or “interests”? He was a patriot. The man loved his country. I mean he was passionate about it. I look back and realize he never needed or even wanted a single thing he ever received from me, be it Christmas or Father’s Day, or his birthday. Every gift I ever got him said, “This is your day; here is your thing”. Nothing ever said, “I know who you are”. What’s crazy is, it should have been so obvious. He joined the military at 17. Who does that? I know. Lots of people do that. But, what I mean is what kind of person does that. Joining the military takes a special kind of person, the kind of person who feels a very particular way about their country. So, this was my epiphany: the perfect gift. I should have put a flagpole in our yard and gotten him a nice big flag. When I was a kid I didn’t even know you could buy flags. I thought they were issued, like cop uniforms. And, where would I go to find flagpoles for sale. I know now that it would have been the most perfect, the most epic, the most “spot on” gift I would have ever given him; the kind of gift that says “I know who you are”. Don’t wait until it’s too late. If any of your parents or grandparents were in the military, they are a special kind of person with particular feelings about this country. This would be the perfect gift. Come to Colonial Flag where there are flags and flagpoles for sale.