Rick Stallings knows his customers. He knows what draws them into his Glen Ellyn flag shop, what he calls ”the fun and frivolity” that come with running up a personal statement on a flag pole.
So for most of the year, Stallings decorates his Flying Colours USA, Inc., store with flags that celebrate every occasion or attitude, from Mother`s Day to the Los Angeles Rams, the first snowflake to a clambake.
For the 4th of July, however, the little shop goes all out with the Stars and Stripes. ”We sell a ton of American flags,” he said. ”We`ve got a patriotic bunch in Glen Ellyn.”
And in Glendale Heights, Downers Grove, St. Charles, Lisle, Naperville and Hinsdale. Almost anywhere you look, in fact, from Memorial Day till Labor Day, the hot colors in the western suburbs are red, white, and blue.
A case in point was that blanket of American flags lining the Naperville Labor Day parade route last year. Behind that sea of Stars and Stripes, 15,000 flag-waving kids were doing exactly what the Exchange Club of Naperville intended. ”It`s a program called Giveakidaflagtowave,” said president Michael Maher. ”Spell it all one word.”
Maher and three dozen other club members filled a convertible with thousands of small flags, leaving only enough room for the driver. The men ran back and forth to the car, handing banners to children along the route. He said, ”We try to position ourselves in front of the parade, so that by the time the other floats come by, the flags are already out. It looks really great. As far as you can see, it`s flags.”
Giveakidaflagtowave, a national program of Exchange Clubs, will be repeated by the Naperville group this September. Maher said, ”We want to get them hyped up, to be proud of their heritage.”
Not only the kids are proud, according to Marg Bryan of the Lisle Heritage Society. The society sells hand flags during the Lisle 4th of July celebration, and, Bryan said, ”Flag-waving is still widespread. People sit along the curb and watch the parade and wave them.”
In Hinsdale, the Chamber of Commerce puts up 175 American flags on village lampposts each Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. ”People expect to see them,” said member Chuck Foster. ”Each year we may lose up to 50 flags. They get weatherbeaten or the storms get them. At $15 each, it costs us over $700 to replace them.”
Chamber of Commerce members contribute to the flag replacement fund, and a Hinsdale grocery store launched a rebate program on bag returns, with proceeds earmarked for the flag fund. Joel Nelson of Kramer Foods initiated the drive, because, he said, ”I grew up in a patriotic time, and the flag means a lot to me.”
The Glendale Heights Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2377, along with most veterans` organizations in Du Page, donates American flags to schools, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other community groups. On Memorial Day each year, the veterans also replace the small American flags that decorate the graves of their fallen comrades.
In May the Glendale Heights post and Batavia VFW Post No. 1197 donated both a U.S. and a POW/MIA flag to a Batavia motorcycle repair shop. Assisted by the veterans, Glen ”Mongo” Mundell, owner of Mongo`s Motorcycle Clinic, dedicated the flag to Sgt. Jon Sapp, an Ottawa man who was killed in action in Laos in 1970, and to Kane County prisoners of war and persons missing in action.
Mundell had not known Sapp but learned about him recently through friends who shared a letter the soldier wrote home shortly before he died. ”I did it (dedicated the flag) because I`ve lost a lot of friends in Vietnam,”
Mundell said. ”I try to make people aware of the POWs and MIAs. I fly the flag all the time; I even have a 3-by-5-foot flag on my bike.”
The stark black and white POW/MIA flag that Mundell raised in front of his shop is a popular style with Janice Christiansen`s customers. Christiansen heads up a flag manufacturing firm in St. Charles that was started by her late husband`s grandfather 61 years ago. The original company name, J. C. Schultz, remains unchanged although the flags are currently marketed under the label Flagsource.
It began as a home industry, turning out supplies for fraternal organizations; family members still hold the reins. Christiansen is president; her mother-in-law is chairman of the board; her sister-in-law is secretary-treasurer.
Christiansen oversees a staff of 80 employees who ship about 250,000 flags a year to dealers, the military, the government and corporations. She estimates that 40 percent are United States flags; among the rest are state flags, United Nations flags, foreign flags and special designs.
”We make American flags in sizes from 4 by 6 inches to 50 by 100 feet,” she said. ”We don`t make many in that large size, but we do make them. One of our 50-by-100-foot flags is flying from Mt. Rushmore.”
Twelve people were needed to fold the 100-pound nylon flag before it was shipped to South Dakota. Each star measures over a yard across.
Large or small, all of the firm`s flags are cut and sewn or screen-printed in a large open room behind the office. Sewing and cutting machines produce a high-decibel din, and Christiansen raises her voice as she guides a visitor through a crash course in flag manufacturing.
”Producing an American flag is very labor intensive; there are 21 steps involved, but each worker completes just one step. We manufacture our flags to government specifications, whether they are intended for government use or not; it`s easier in the long run.”
At one station, a man oversees a machine slicing 10 300-yard-long red stripes from a huge bolt of nylon; farther along, a woman guides red and white stripes into a machine that folds and stitches them automatically.
The 50-star fields that Flagsource uses may be embroidered, die cut and sewn on, or screen-printed, Christiansen explains. Embroidered star fields are purchased ready-made from another company and sewn in at Flagsource.
Homeowners who unfurl a long-stored cotton banner once or twice a year may be surprised to hear they are out of step. ”No one in the know argues for natural-fiber flags,” says Christiansen. ”Cotton is expensive. It fades, and it does not wear or fly as well as nylon or polyester.”
And then there is the flutter factor: ”Nylon is lighter; it floats out on the breeze better.”
Christiansen estimates that a nylon or nylon-polyester flag in daily use may need replacement in three months to two years, depending on its size and the climate. ”But just to display on holidays,” she adds, ”it will last forever.”
Later Christiansen sat in the quiet of the company boardroom and talked about her patriotic business. In one corner stood a replica of the Statue of Liberty, in another an American flag and a POW/MIA flag. An afghan crocheted in a Stars and Stripes pattern lay across a chair beside a display of pewter statuettes of U.S. presidents.
A half-dozen firms manufacture most United States flags, according to Christiansen; most are in the East, and Flagsource is the sole Midwestern one. She and the others have lobbied for labeling laws to identify American-made flags.
”Most people want an American flag that`s made in the U.S. We feel strongly about that. And we pride ourselves on buying all domestic goods. If you are in the business of making U.S. flags, you should buy U.S.”
In front of the Flagsource building, four tall flag poles raise banners to the wind. On Independence Day, Christiansen flies four U. S. flags, but at other times visitors may find one Stars and Stripes alongside an Illinois flag, a St. Charles flag with its fox and a company flag. Or the American flag with foreign flags, if international guests are expected. Or the mix may include a personal flag: ”When my mother-in-law turned 65, we flew an 8-by-12-foot `65` flag,” said Christiansen.
”There`s something special about being in the American flag business,”
she said.
”There isn`t a morning that I drive into our parking lot that I don`t look for the American flag up there. I see all the flags, but I think it`s great to be able to see that one.”
