Broadway, Ocean Grove, N.J. Paul Goldfinger photo. Blogfinger.net 11/30/23. Click once to enlarge.
The original Aurora, a grand single family home in Ocean Grove. (now 4 condos thanks to the dopes in Neptune.). 2018. Photo by Maggie and Joe Thornton.
Tent Village outside the Great Auditorium. Paul Goldfinger photo in OG. Memorial Day 2017. M-9.
Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, NJ, USA.
When we first moved to Ocean Grove, we were impressed with the numbers of homes that were flying the American flag. Lately, e.g. today, very few stars and stripes were evident around town. As a veteran, that is somewhat disappointing.
But what does that mean? Well, it may mean that many more homes are second homes than were evident 20 years ago. Or we had a bad wind storm last week. Our display was torn apart and landed on Tom’s porch across the street.
Some who fly the American flag follow protocol if they want to add another country’s flag by placing that underneath and in a smaller size. Some fly the flags of other countries without the American flag. That is annoying to me, but that is not illegal. It is freedom of speech, and I have seen Irish, Italian, Norwegian, French, and Israel flags about town.
So the Israel flag above might suggest a particular concern in view of the war over there, but not necessarily. Our house flies the American flag and under it is a smaller Israel flag, but that is usual for us and not a statement about the war, although we have a display in our grassy strip, like the one above, that says “We Stand With Israel.” And that is certainly an opinion that might provoke a conversation on Blogfinger. I say “might” because we usually disallow political discussions here, and you can bet that the war is a topic that we will avoid, and I believe our readers would agree.
Other kinds of flags are seen about town including the rainbow flag, “no hate here” flag, church flag, Christmas flags, football team flags, and more, and those are just fine.
I posted this particular Broadway flag display because it is quite rare in town and is a “sign of the times.”
And the American flag is celebrated around the world, so we could do better in the Grove.
Here is a Vienna Philharmonic 2019 summer concert. Unfortunately the cameraman didn’t understand that we love our piccolo solos in America. And, Maestro Dudamel, why didn’t you bring out the US flag for this rendition of Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever?” I wonder how many in that audience realized what this piece was about.
At least in OG when this march is played, usually at the end of a patriotic concert, we can light up the Great Auditorium flag, and we all love that.