By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Marg Graham and Reed Chatterson are livening up life in their Port Hope neighbourhood with a sort of live-action Fun With Flags program.
Though they don’t watch The Big Bang Theory, neighbours often compare their COVID-19 project to the Internet show created by the fictitious Sheldon Cooper character on that long-running TV series as they fly a different flag each day at their house located at 135 Centennial Drivefor the entertainment and edification of all.
Collecting flags wherever they go has given them a trove of country, state and commemorative flags over many years.
“I just went to Salem, Massachusetts, and bought a flag with a witch,” Graham said.
They have travelled extensively in Europe, Canada and the US, had a son who was an exchange student to Germany (and travelled in Argentina), a daughter who has lived in England and Egypt, and even hosted exchange students, adding to the collection every step of the way.
Commemorative flags include a souvenir from the year 2000, the Earth Day flag they flew on (of course) Earth Day, a half-and-half American-Canadian Flag, and the pot flag they saw in Value Village after cannabis was legalized, Chatterson estimates they have 150 flags. Graham believes it’s more like 200. The ones that aren’t in bins are stored folded up in file folders, and she said there are a lot of drawers full.
“If I see a flag when we’re out, if we don’t have it, I buy it,” she said.
“We’ve always had a flagpole and always had flags. Since the pandemic, we have been using our flagpole to help the neighbours educate their kids. We put up a different flag every day and ask people to guess what it is.”
For those who want a better view of the flag than looking at it on the pole, Graham shoots Chatterson holding the flag, then crops it in close and posts that photo on Facebook. They read the guesses and, at the end of each day and reveal the answer.
“We’ve done that every day, basically since we’ve been locked in.”
Neighbour Aimee Tedford is one of their regulars, she said, walking her kids past the flag, reading the answer and using it for a geography lesson. For their recent Key West flag, for example, she taught the children about the Florida keys, and they researched things like how long it would take to drive through the keys and how many bridges they’d cross along the way.
And sometimes, if they haven’t put one up when the family goes by, Graham holds up a few flags in the window to let them give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on what they’d like to see go up the flagpole.
Though sometimes they may be late flying a flag, they never miss a day, she reports – their neighbours always remind them if they forget.
Join the following and check the Facebook page for a new challenge each day. And while you’re there, enjoy a gallery of past flags and fun facts.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
