Old Glory: Fairlawn Man Knows Rules for Flying Flags

This time of year, Rev. Walt Chisholm's patriotism shows at his Fairlawn house.

Patriotic bunting hangs from the eaves by the front door, and a large American flag sways in the breeze from a 12-foot pole alongside the garden walkway.

Next to Old Glory flies Chisholm's flag of Scotland, but it's never higher than the Stars and Stripes. That's just one one the rules the former commander of the Fairlawn VFW Post 349 observes.

"The American Flag always flies higher than any other flag," Chisholm said recently, "and if you're flying it from a holder on the wall it always flies at an angle."

Chisholm served in the Navy during World War II in the Pacific. He came home in 1946 and served as Senior Pastor at Montrose Zion United Methodist Church in the 1960s and 1970s, where he is now Pastor Emeritus.

Chisholm, 84, is one of the people who organizes Fairlawn's Memorial Day events, and he helps organize local Boy Scouts who place flags on the graves of veterans for Memorial Day and July Fourth. He meets with fellow VFW members every month and presides over the group's annual flag burning ceremony each Flag Day.

"That's the only way you properly dispose of a flag," Chisholm said. "There is a specific ceremony we do."

"A flag never touches the ground, and you don't fly it if it is fading or old." On the whole, Chisholm said, folks in Fairlawn do a good job of properly displaying the flag. "I wouldn't hesitate to say something if I saw someone doing it wrong."

For more information on Flag etiquette can be found here .

• The flag should be lighted at all times, either by sunlight or by an appropriate light source.
• The flag should be flown in fair weather, unless the flag is designed for inclement weather use.
• The flag should never be dipped to any person or thing. It is flown upside down only as a distress signal.
• The flag should not be used as part of a costume or athletic uniform, except that a flag patch may be used on the uniform of military personnel, fireman, policeman and members of patriotic organizations.