Discarded Flag Drop Box

In honor of the 4th of July I thought some flag etiquette might be appropriate. There is a right way and a wrong way to dispose of a tattered, worn out American flag.  It's a matter of respect for our country and the men and women in uniform that serve it.

Wrong Way: Throw it in a trash can.
Right Way: Believe it or not--burning it.

Now you're probably thinking...burn it? Really? Then what was all the hullabaloo in the 1960s then? Well  there is also a respectful way to burn it and that is through an Unserviceable Flag Ceremony. These are conducted by your local American Legion, VFW or other Military organization. The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America also conduct these ceremonies with members of one of the above organizations present.

I'm not sure about other areas of the country, but here in Western New York we have drop boxes for citizens to discard their unusable flags in front of many Legion Posts or Veteran's Offices. And now we get to the other topic of my post.

Aside from being an abstractor, historian, and a writer I am also an artist. So when my hubby called me up and asked me, "Can you paint a mailbox for the Legion Post?" I'm thinking, you know, a mail box---the kind you stick in front of your house. Ah, that would be a no. Imagine my surprise when a decommissioned post office mailbox showed up on my porch!

So after sandblasting, metal prep, primer, my design enlarged to scale, One Shot sign paint via airbrushing and hand painting, below was the finished product. Quite patriotic don't you think?

This is post #4 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.