6/14/2009:
Today is Flag Day, marking the 1777 adoption of the American flag. That star-spangled banner is symbolic of our unity and our roots. It hearkens back to a time of immigration and western settlement as people came from the east to seek "opportunity and prosperity."
Reported on this date in 1912, one young man from Milwaukee came to seek his fortune, and found it! However, fortune came not as money, but in the guise of a Bismarck girl. He won her over and married her, though he had to borrow his wedding ensemble from his parents.
However, after the honeymoon, opportunity knocked again, and he also found a job!
So on Flag Day, let us remember who we are, and where we came from; what we sought, and what we found. Happy Flag Day.
Dakota Datebook by Sarah Walker
Sources:
Bismarck Weekly Tribune, June 14, 1912