In the mid-1950s while snooping in my 17-year-old sister’s room I found a box with a white silk flag that had a large red circle in the center.

The 11-year-old me didn’t know it was a flag until I tattled to Momma, then showed her the box.

She said her brother gave it to Betty when he came back from fighting a war in Japan after that country had bombed us at Pearl Harbor.

He took the flag from a Japanese soldier, she said, to shame him for being caught by my Uncle James.

I’d seen enough war movies by then to guess that Momma had sugar-coated it, and my Uncle probably killed the guy, then took that flag.

I was also disappointed that I didn’t get my big sister in trouble so I could get her room upstairs instead of having to sleep on a roll-away bed in our living room.

Those were scary days back then for school kids. We’d started having more fire drills, and my best friend Donna and I had overheard our folks talking about the Russians who were threatening to bomb us.

We’d said the pledge of allegiance at school every morning since kindergarten, but during that time I remember paying more attention to the words.

Maybe I was growing up, or maybe I was feeling particularly patriotic. After all, that was during a time when I wanted to become a nurse, then join the WAACs (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps), after seeing a movie on TV. As adults it’s also our knee-jerk reaction to want to keep our country free.

I’m proud that Oklahoma schools are required to have U.S. flags outside, and inside schools, “and students are to be led in the pledge of allegiance to our flag.”

Some of my best memories are when I was standing on the sidelines at football or baseball games and reciting the pledge of allegiance along with the teams and all of the fans. It’s just one of those special moments when you want to stand a little taller when you put your hand over your heart, and say, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Friday, July 4 (or any day) is also a perfect day to say a prayer for all of our men and women in service to our country!