The Flags of Irvington
By: Stan Denski
Photo By: Stan Denski
But this year was different. This year I walked out onto Lowell one morning and caught the person responsible red-white-and-blue-handed (sorry, couldn’t stop myself), climbing down from a ladder by a telephone pole. Kent Hankins, a long-time Irvingtonian, aided and abetted by one Vivian Blankenship, also from Irvington, are the culprits behind this year’s flags of Irvington. The story begins some years ago when Kent Hankins was a Navistar employee and saw the National Flag Truck when it made a stop in Indianapolis. No, I’d never heard of The National Flag Truck either, and its story turns out to be pretty interesting all on its own. The National Flag Truck is a specially designed rig, an International Harvester truck with a custom Stars & Stripes paint job. It carries a historic collection of five 300-pound, ninety-foot American Flags which are flown with the President at official affairs of state and stored by the US Navy aboard the U.S.S. Constitution, “Old Ironsides.” Driven by Marc Valentine, who has been its driver since the truck was commissioned in 1989, the truck has carried these flags to ceremonies in all 50 states and represented the US in nine foreign countries. The truck has attended over 600 official ceremonies worldwide, clocked over 550,000 miles through four White House administrations and led a 14,000 mile over the road expedition to the Artic Circle. On D-Day, June 6, 1994 it became the first American truck to pass under the English Channel (London to Paris) through the Channel Tunnel. The truck’s home base is in Boston at the Boston National Historical Park on the “Freedom Trail.” I told you it was an interesting story. For Kent Hankins, Irvington is a celebration of diversity of architecture, people, and interests. Irvington’s “founding fathers” envisioned Irvington as a community of scholars and artists; a community of individuals brought together by some sense of shared purpose. Since the 1960s, the flag has become an increasingly complex repository of meaning. For Hankins, in addition to their representing basic American values and hard-won freedoms, the flags that adorn the sidewalks of Lowell Street also signify the “small town” American atmosphere that has long-attracted people to Irvington, making it, for many of us, a near-perfect oasis in the midst of a growing and thriving city. The “city” part of that equation was in force last year when the flags failed to make their annual appearance. Kent, who had set his ladder and then went back inside to grab something he’d forgotten, came back out and found that, while the utility pole was still there, ladder bandits had absconded with his ladder. 2005 is the fourth year for Kent and his flags. Each year, as he sets out with flags and ladder, a neighbor will appear to help with the operation, this year it was Vivian Blankenship, next year it might be me. I don’t like heights so Kent can climb the ladder while I hand him the flags and my pit-bull, Buster, guards the ladder. |
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