Pride, defiance spur flag mania

Demand outstrips supply for the fabric of American patriotism.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 18, 2001

[Times photo: Fraser Hale] At the Keep Me in Stitches store in Tampa, Carol Prentice puts the finishing touches Monday on one of the flags the Keystone Quilters were sewing to sell as a fundraiser for the American Red Cross.

TAMPA -- If they couldn't find flags with the full 50 stars, they settled for 15 or 13. And if the Star Spangled Banners and the Betsy Ross flags had already been plucked off the shelves, customers seized Revolution-era patterns with the rattlesnake and the warning, "Don't Tread On Me."

"The business is at least a hundred times what it normally is," said Tony Clayton, who runs Head's Flags in Tampa. He sold out of a Monday afternoon delivery of 500 American flags within 90 minutes. "I've sold the big ones, the little ones, everything I have."

A week after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as the death count climbs and a chilled nation steels itself for war, people scrambled for flags around Tampa Bay.

They spoke of the need to show pride and defiance. At such a chilling time, it's a little warmer wrapped in the national colors.

"I'm proud to be an American, but there's more to it than that," said Kelly Darula, 38, of Tampa, one of more than 200 people who couldn't find Old Glory at Head's Flags Monday. "I'm doing it for the people who lost their lives."

Added Floyd Head, 75, who founded the shop: "It's the only way the common man can slap back. We had the same fever during the Persian Gulf War."

Head told customers he hoped to have more in stock today.

Joseph Diaco got lucky. Just before closing Monday, the 31-year-old Tampa lawyer found an 8-by-12-foot flag near the back of the shop. He bought it for $179.99 without blinking.

"I didn't want to take no for an answer," Diaco said. "This is about the seventh place I've gone to."

Demand for the Stars and Stripes is so high that manufacturers are looking for workers to put on production lines. "The demand is probably 10 times what we can supply," said Tibor Egervary, spokesman for Valley Forge Flag in Womelsdorf, Pa., one of the nation's largest manufacturers.

Shelves were bare at chains such as Wal-Mart and Target, too. "Anything that's red, white and blue, we're selling," said Kurt Phillips, assistant manager of the Wal-Mart on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Tampa. In Boca Raton, a company called the National Council of Compensation Insurance Holdings faced an avalanche of criticism after telling employees last week they could not display American flags at work. The company argued the flag was a potentially divisive political symbol, but has since switched positions and is now distributing printed flags for workers' cubicles.

In Carrollwood, a local quilting group gathered Monday at the back of the Keep Me in Stitches sewing shop with fabrics, scissors, and iron-on stars and stripes. Their goal: make 500 flags this week, with proceeds going to disaster relief.

"We all have certain talents," said Linda Sue Cubero, 55, one of the roughly two dozen volunteer quilters. "To me, (the flag) is a symbol of solidarity. They tore at the fabric of America, and it lets everyone know that we're still here."

- Information from Times wires was used in this report. Christopher Goffard can be reached (813) 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com.

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