Flags Over Larimer

Early last month, I had to work at my employer's booth at the CEDIA Expo in downtown Denver. Some of the days, I took Denver RTD's Light Rail system to the Colorado Convention Center, but on the Sunday of the show, RTD's schedule didn't work out. So, I drove downtown, and while there, I saw a display of state flags hung over Larimer Street left over from the Democratic National Convention. I pointed my cell phone camera and snapped this photo while driving, so it isn't a masterpiece picture.

However, I wonder how many other people notice the trivial things that I see. Maybe a lot, maybe only a few. But take a look at the picture. Do you notice anything? I noticed it before I took the picture, which is one reason I did so. After you look, keep reading and I will share what I see.

The thing I saw is the order of the flags. I didn't see all the way up the street, but notice the closest row. I quickly noticed it had US territorial flags for American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It also has the flags of the states of Hawaii and Alaska, our 50th and 49th states. Then look at the next row, and you see starting on your left, the flags of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington, the 48th through 42nd states admitted to the union, respectively. So obviously, these flags were hung in order of admission, followed by the non-state U.S. flags, and we are looking from the "wrong direction". I have no doubt that if we went to the other end of the block, Delaware's flag would have been the first one on the first row (I learned about that when I was a schoolchild in that state, where we celebrated "Delaware Day" every December 7, the date the Diamond State became the first one to ratify the Constitution of the United States).

Trivial? Yes. But I wonder if most people seeing this sight just thought it was a random collection of state flags. I think that my mind works in unusual ways. Maybe that's good, maybe not.