Stars and Stripes Retired During Flag Day Celebration

About 100 flags were retired in a blaze of Old Glory on Sunday during Flag Day services at the Canoga Park Elks Lodge.

The Elks eulogized the faded and tattered flags, which had flown over police and fire stations, a Navy Reserve post and San Fernando Valley homes, before burning them in a stately ritual.

Flag Day is officially recognized Wednesday.

“Having been planted firmly on the high pinnacle of American faith,” Elks Exalted Ruler Frank Farquharson said, “the flag’s gentle fluttering folds have been an inspiration to untold millions. May we all continue to enjoy the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness which has been granted to every American as the heritage of free men.”

The ceremony, held a block from Independence Avenue, brought together disparate bits of Americana.

Event planners intentionally fused celebrity and love of country.

John Wayne impersonator Ermal Walden Williamson delivered two poems. “We call her old because she knows how to love us,” Williamson said of the flag in a Duke-like monotone. A dead ringer for Wayne, Williamson said he was honoring both Flag Day and the 21st anniversary of the actor’s death.

The Elks could not have avoided Hollywood-style patriotism if they had tried. Mel Gibson, flanked by battle-worn flags, peered solemnly over the crowd from a billboard advertising his new film, “The Patriot.”

Boy Scout Troop 99 paraded historical flag designs dating from the 1775 Pine flag flown at the Battle of Bunker Hill to the current 50-star flag.

Along with the heraldry came a trio of comic storytellers playing the roles of a Union soldier, a Confederate soldier and Abraham Lincoln. Between the Pledge of Allegiance and the final prayer, the more than 100 patriots in attendance joined in singing Civil War campfire songs.