Ragged Old Flag

I walked through a county courthouse square

On a park bench, an old man was sitting there

I said "Your old court house is kind of run down", he said

"Naw, it'll do for our little town"

I said "Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit"

And that's a ragged old flag you got hanging on it

He said "Have a seat", and I sat down

"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"

I said "I think it is", he said

"I don't like to brag

But we're kind of proud of that ragged old flag

You see, we got a little hole in that flag there

When Washington took it across the Delaware

And it got powder burned the night that Francis Scott Key

Sat watching it writin' "Say Can You See"

And it got a bad rip in New Orleans

With Packingham and Jackson tugging at its seams

And It almost fell at the Alamo

Beside the Texas flag but

She waved on though

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville

And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill

There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard and Bragg

And the south wind blew hard on that ragged old flag

On Flanders Field in World War I

She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun

She turned blood red in World War II

She hung limp, and low, a time or two

She was in Korea, Vietnam

She went where she was sent

By her Uncle Sam

She waved from our ships upon the briny foam

And now they've about quit waving back here at home

In her own good land here she's been abused

She's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused

And the government for which she stands

Is scandalized throughout out the land

And she's gettin' thread bare, and she's wearing thin

But she's in good shape for the shape she's in

'Cause she's been through the fire before

And I believe she can take a whole lot more"

So we raise her up every morning

We take her down every night

We don't let her touch the ground and we fold her up right

On second thought, I do like to brag

'Cause I'm mighty proud of that ragged old flag