Orange Flag

One of my granddaughters is a crossing guard at her school. She gets to authoritatively stand at one of the crosswalks before and after school and stop cars so kids can walk across the street without turning into Flat Stanley. I still remember the kids who got to do that in my elementary school a zillion years ago. I wasn’t one of them but I envied how important they looked. The area where I live has kind of self-appointed crossings in neighborhoods near busy streets. Attached on street signs are white tubes. containing a bunch of orange vinyl flags on wooden handles. When a pedestrian wants to cross the street, they take a flag and hold it out to alert oncoming cars. The driver sees the person holding or waving the flag, hopefully stops, and the person walks across the street. Then they deposit the orange flag in a similar white tube on the opposite corner for people coming the other way. This may be common in lots of areas but I hadn’t seen it until we moved here and I think it’s brilliant. Drivers are generally polite here and keep a lookout for someone wanting to cross the street anyway but I like this added measure. There’s one busy street I cross fairly often when I’m out walking and I’m always hoping to have to use a flag. Yesterday I came to that intersection and I could see a car but it was a ways away. I could have easily and safely crossed without one but I grabbed a flag, waved it and asserted my authority. I walked to the other side of the street, satisfying my frustrated inner crossing guard.

Image courtesy Clker-Free-Vector-Im at Pixabay.com