I walked through a county courthouse square,

On a park bench an old man was sitting there. I

Said, “Your old courthouse is kinda run down.”

He said, “Nah, It’ll do for our little town.”

I said, “Your flagpole has 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 so.” He said, “I don’t like to brag,

But were kinda 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 Francis Scott

Key

Sat watching it writing – O Say Can You See-

And it got a bad rip in New Orleans

With Packingham and Jackson, tuggin at its

Seams.

“And it almost fell at the Alamo

Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through,

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 harder on the 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 by the time it was through.

She was in Korea and Vietnam.

She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.”

“She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,

And now they’ve quit waving back here at home

In her own good land she’s been abused

She’s been burned, dishonored, denied and refused.

And she’s getting threadbare and wearing thin,

But she’s in good shape for the shape she is 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

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 am mighty proud of that

Ragged Old Flag”

—Written by Johnny Cash