Posted by Ed Kiser on June 09, 2012 at 11:42:59 user Kisered.
There are two situations in which Nancy flies a flag
that is actually just a bedspread or blanket or perhaps
a sheet or some other bed-related covering, and those
are:
when she raised that flag in Winter Holiday to
tell the others that she was being allowed to
come to council forgetting that she had
previously agreed with Dick that her flying a
flag on the Beckfoot promontory was a signal
to head for the Pole
and in Swallows and Amazons, when the Amazons
realized that the Amazon had been successfully
slipped away from them and they wished to
raise a flag to indicate their surrender.
The Wildcat "flagpole" was a rope cast over a limb of a
tall pine tree with both ends dangling within reach of
someone on the ground, and very likely tied together to
avoid having one end slip up and over the limb to drop
to the ground.
The flag itself is just a blanket, with no grommit or
eyelit or any other addition to facilitate its being
used as a flag, as it is just a blanket.
My puzzle is, how does one attach such a "flag" to a
rope to haul it up into that tree? I assume the
blanket was not cut or permanently modified in any way
and could return to its original duty as a plain
blanket after its stint as a flag. Likewise, the rope
was itself not cut in any way.
Somehow, the top and bottom corners along one side were
fastened to that rope so it could be hauled up in a
flag-like manner. How this was done, I don't know, but
apparently Nancy managed to do so on both occasions.
Anybody have any ideas how this was done?
Ed Kiser, Kentucky