"That Ragged Old Flag"
I walked through a county courthouse square
On a park bench, an old man was sittin there.
I said, "Your court house is kinda run down,
He said, "No, it will do for our little town".
I said "your old flag pole kinda tilts a little bit,
And thats a ragged old flag you got hanging on it".
He said "have a seat", so I sat down,
He said, "is this your first visit to our little town"
I said, "I think it is"
He said "I don't like to brag, but were kinda proud of
"That Ragged Old Flag"
You see, we got a little hole in that flag there,
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
It got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it, writing "Oh Say Can You See"
It got a rip in New Orleans, with Packingham & Jackson
tugging at its seams.
It almost fell at the Alamo beside the Texas flag,
But she waved on tho.
It got cut with a sword in Chancellorsville,
Got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on
"That Ragged Old Flag"
On Flanders Field in World War I,
She took a bad hit from a Bertha Gun,
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low by the time that one was through,
She was in Korea and Vietnam, She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.
The Native Americans, The Black, Yellow and White
All shed red blood for the Stars and Stripes.
And here in her own good land,
Shes been abused, burned, dishonored, denied and refused,
And the very government for which she stands
Has been scandalized throughout out the land.
And shes getting thread bare, and shes wearing kinda thin,
But shes in pretty good shape, for the shape shes in.
Cause shes been through the fire before
and she can take a whole lot more.
So we raise her up every morning
And we bring her down slow every night,
We don't let her touch the ground,
And we fold her up right.
On second thought, I do like to brag
Cause I'm mighty proud of
That Ragged Old Flag!
posted by
Lee Helle
April 1997
VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945
