Flag Contest Winner Receives $300 Prize
“Me and Betsy Ross,” crowed Vernon Hall, whose design was chosen Wednesday for Oceanside’s new flag over 107 other entries.
His city flag design includes three sailboats on a triangle of dark blue, two broad aquamarine strips and a narrow white band carrying the inscriptions, “City of Oceanside” and “Established 1888.”
Hall confessed that he had entered three designs in the contest, “and this was not my favorite one.” But he accepted his $300 first prize just the same.
Hall’s favorite of his three entries--a design similar to the city seal with mottoes and city landmarks on it--was too busy, he was told. It would not have been legible waving from a flagpole.
The Oceanside man spent most of his adult life in Europe as a civilian superintendent of stevedores for the U.S. Army. He attended art school in Paris and now is a member of the Oceanside-Carlsbad Art League.
Hall, 65, has lived in Oceanside for six years.
“About 42 years ago, when I was in the Coast Guard, I patrolled the Oceanside beach with a rifle, protecting this city from invaders,” he recalled.
Contest runners-up, who will receive $50 savings bonds for their designs, are: Cheryl Stoner, Robert Luster, Harrison Standley, all of Oceanside, and Susan Hudson of Fallbrook.
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