McHenry County Blog

This is my favorite flag photo.

I took it about a half a dozen years ago when our family went East and spent a day in the nation’s Capital.

We didn’t plan well enough to know that one needed to make a reservation to go to the top of the Washington Monument.

But, we lucked out.

I had been once before when I lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I don’t know whether that was the trip when I saw President Harry Truman walking to work at the White House.

“Walking to work” sounds strange, doesn’t it?

But he was living in Blair House while the White House was being refurbished. “Rebuilt” is probably a better word.

We were on the sidewalk in front of the old War Department Building that became the Executive Office Building where I worked for the better part of a year as a baby Budget Examiner, having responsibility for the Small Business Administration’s budget. Now, it has Eisenhower’s name affixed to it.

The wedding cake building is located just to the West of the White House.

Visiting the Washington Monument reminded me of my father’s telling me he and other 4-H All Stars had camped on the grounds. Since he was born in 1916, that was probably in the early 1930′s. Undoubtedly due to a politically astute Ag teacher at Sudlersville High School, Dad was elected President of 4-H at a convention in Hagerstown, Maryland.

I think he told me that story as we drove past the County Fairgrounds where the convention was held on a trip from Crystal Lake to Washington for his treatment for lung cancer at Georgetown University Hospital.

I think it was the cartoon of the folded flag that inspired me to attend the Memorial Day parade and ceremony at Union Cemetery today.

The photo above is probably the best one of the day, but I’ll post others as the afternoon goes on.

Unlike at my brother-in-law Mike Peters’ military funeral in Church Hill, Maryland, taps were played twice after the twenty-one gun salute at the Crystal Lake Memorial Day ceremony.  Michael was last posted as a Chaplain at Washington’s Naval Yard.  He died of kidney cancer.

Diana Kenney, the President of the Crystal Lake Historical Society told of the renovation of Union Solider Memorial.

Both the invocation and the benediction was given by Immanuel Lutheran Chruch’s Associate Pastor Pastor Erik Neider.

Remembering those who died in combat is the reason for what used to be called Decoration Day.

Also catching my attention after the parade were these sunglasses.

There was a protracted fight in the Illinois General Assembly during the 1970′s over whether Illinois should celebrate Memorial Day on May 30th or go with the flow and make another three-day weekend ending in the final Monday of May.

In the end, tourism interests beat back those who wanted to honor those who died in battle, even though Illinois General John Logan started the tradition. He was even a State Representative for three years, served in Congress and was an unsuccessful Vice Presidential candidate.

I bring this up today, because the commercial interests seem to have outsmarted themselves for at least the last two years around here.

May 30th was a fine day last year and is predicted to be this year, while the last day in May hasn’t been so hot.

When Illinois voted to change the date to remember those who died for our country, I voted with the minority to leave it on May 30th.

Tonya Franklin, the woman who was willing to run against Jack Franks for State Representative as a Republican but was denied that opportunity by the McHenry County Republican Central Committee, sent an interesting photo of her home.

It was taken by one of the Google mapping folks.

Look at it closely and you will see an American Flag.

And, there is another flag next to it that has been deliberately blurred.

It’s a Tea Party Flag.

Draw your own conclusion.

A friend in Chicago found some of his anti-Obama bumper stickers blurred.

As if a lot of people look at these pictures.

On Tuesday, 9-11, Seneca Township marked the hoisting of its new flag on the township flag post.

As explained here, the flag was created as an Eagle Project by Life Scout Jarrett Mathews.

Suggested by Seneca Township resident Don Andrews, the project involved Marengo Township art students and local Scouts.

The only cost to the township was buying the flag.

A press release from Seneca Township:

Seneca Township in McHenry County will be holding a flag dedication for the Township’s newly designed flag.

The idea for a flag to represent Seneca Township was suggested by Don Andrews (citizen of Seneca Township).

The Board realized it could be a costly endeavor to have a design created.

Trustee Susan Mathews suggested that this would be a great opportunity for a local Scout to complete his Eagle Scout Project requirement. The Board agreed this was the best option to accomplish the project without great cost to the taxpayers.

Jarrett Mathews, a Life Scout from Marengo Troop 530, agreed to make this his Eagle Scout Project.

Once he had approval from appropriate Adult Scout Leaders, he worked to recruit students from Marengo Community High School’s Art Department as well as seeking help from local Scouts.

As this project was artistic in nature, he ended up with a small handful of students to lead in the development of a design concept.  Jarrett worked with these students to educate them regarding the history of Seneca Township in order to come up with an appropriate theme for the flag designs.

As the Township is rural and named for the Seneca Indian Tribe, they chose designs to represent these themes.

The design also need to incorporate the year of establishment, 1850, as well as the county name, McHenry County.

The designs were presented to the Township Board of Directors, where the Board members evaluated each design and finally put it to a vote.

Once the design had been chosen, Jarrett and his group of students took the chosen design drawing to a graphic artist, where the design was scanned into a computer on Adobe Illustrator software and saved to a flash drive. This flash drive was sent to a printer where the design was printed onto a sample size fabric for the Seneca Township Board to approve. Once the product was approved by the Board, the Trustees voted to purchase the full size flag for the Township.

The only cost to the Township was the purchase of the final product.

The new flag will be dedicated at Seneca Township’s regular meeting at the Township building, Tuesday, September 11, 2012.

The address is 16506 Garden Valley Road, Woodstock, IL 60098.

The ceremony will begin promptly at 7pm. Representatives from the American Legion – Don Andrews and Gene Boxleitner will be present.

The McHenry County District 6 Board members have also been invited, Randy Donley, Mary McCann, Diane Evertsen, and Ersel Schuster.

Also present at the dedication ceremony will be the Seneca Township Supervisor, Jim Kagel; Road Commissioner, Scott Swanson, Trustees, Rosemary Bartman, Tom Dahlfors, Susan Mathews, Mike O’Leary; Clerk, Dawn Seemann, and the Accessor, Paul Bockman.

As the ceremony will fall on 9/11, Scout Troop 530 will also conduct an invocation and benediction for the people that lost their lives in the Twin Towers.

The flags at the Administrative Center of McHenry County are flying at half staff in memory of the late State Rep. Mark Beaubien.

His wake was Thursday in Crystal Lake. The parking lot at the Davenport Funeral Home was packed over capacity.

Beaubien’s funeral service will be Friday, 10:30 A.M. at St. Anne’s, 120 Ela (at the corner of Franklin) in Barrington.

His obituary can be found here.

In a synergistic arrangement, the City of Crystal Lake allowed T-Mobile to build a very, very tall mobile phone tower on its sewage plant property.

This is the kind of tower that T-Mobile wanted to erect in the middle of Crystal Lake’s Ken Bird Park. (Read about the uprising at the Park Board meeting here.)

This is such a much better location for all sorts of reasons.

It can similarly be seen by cars coming west on Rakow Road.

Appropriate for Memorial Day, don’t you think?

Just south of the Dixie Truck Stop on Interstate 55 we found a flag flying on the middle of an overpass.

It was just south of Atlanta.

Hard to miss.

I found this flag in Bull Valley while collecting signatures on a petition to citizens to vote on whether they wanted to annex two farms.

I am sure it reflects the opinion of its owner.

You can see the snake best in the top photo; the words in the bottom one. The wind was blowing so hard I could not capture the content of the flag in one frame.