Every year since 2014 (except for 2020) old Chicago-area friends have come to my house on the second Saturday of June for conversation and grilled meat, and so it was yesterday. The Gabfest, we call it. Twice over the years the weather has driven us inside for the event, but usually it’s on my deck, and so it was yesterday. Always a delight. This year two out-of-town old friends were able to join us for the first time, for an extra measure of delight.

A few years ago, I started decorating the yard with flags for the Gabfest, and so it was yesterday. As it happens, Flag Day, “the runty stepchild among American national holidays,” is around this time of year, and of course happens to be today. So I left the flags up after the event. Also, just after we finished last night, it rained pretty hard, and I left the flags out to dry today.

These four represent places I’ve lived, left to right: Texas, Tennessee, Chicago (and its suburbs) and Osaka.

Also a few years ago, I acquired small flags from each country I’ve visited, including the U.S. and the DDR, which was most certainly a country in 1983, but not such subnational entities as Hong Kong and Macao. Those go in the pot plants lining the edge of the deck.

At first 31, but adding others as necessary to make the current total of 36. So 40 flags in all. Guess you could call it Flags Day around here.