With Each Fallen Soldier, a Field of Flags Grows

[Danascot]

This continuing memorial is just a few miles from my house, in the same town where I live. I pass it almost daily and have often marvelled at the dedication of the woman who established and maintains it, and what a sad task it must be. I was planning to take a photo and post here on the 3,000 mark but the NYT beat me to it.


Caren Crootof updated the total on Thursday for her field of flags in Middle Grove, N.Y.,
which honors American soldiers who have been killed in Iraq.

MIDDLE GROVE, N.Y., Jan. 4 — The flags are cut from rolls of yellow plastic tablecloth, then woven onto thin wire rods. Each is about as long as a man’s size 7 shoe, as wide as an outstretched hand.

They stand on a sloped corner field framed by a row of conifer trees in this upstate hamlet, spreading in concentric circles like ripples on still water.

From afar, the flags look like clumsily painted dots, an amateur installation of elusive meaning. A closer look yields a clue: a laminated sign with bold black numbers that match the number of flags on the field, numbers that climb almost by the day.

On Sunday, there were 3,000 yellow flags on the ground. By Thursday, five more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/nyregion/06flags.html...

[photogirl12]

1. I saw that in the NY Times this weekend.

I never knew that a memorial like this was so close to where I live! I had every intention of driving up there to see it this weekend, but just never made it up there.

[Danascot]

2. It'll still be there

when you get the chance, Photogirl12. It's just a few miles west of Saratoga on Rt 29, at the intersection with Middle Line Road, on the left. Pick a bright sunny day. The yellow flags are very dramatic in the sun. The field looks almost full now. No more room. Time to stop the war!

[photogirl12]

3. My boyfriend saw that in the NY Times and

has decided that we need to do a yellow ribbon for each solider killed in Iraq in one of our trees in the front of our house. We already have 2 Support the Troops, Bring them Home Now signs; 5 American flags, and one of or trees is decorated in red, white, and blue lights with a yellow ribbon.