Flags for a Princess

As a child growing up in Canada, I first recall noticing the American flag in my kindergarten year,1951. It was at the fall visit of Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen a few months later.

I was five years old and had moved with my parents to Calgary, Alberta from Weyburn Saskatchewan two years before. My father was going to take me to see the Princess's motorcade, and we went into a shop to buy a flag for me to wave.

There were three main offerings on the shelf. Most were different sizes of the Union Jack, the flag with big red crosses, blue behind them and thin white lines in between. There was one that had a lot of red with a Union Jack in the corner and a crest with three green maple leaves. And there was one with red and white stripes like a barber pole and a blue square in the corner with stars in it.

At this stage I didn't know about countries or flags by their names. They were simply banners I'd seen on walls and waving on poles.

The Union Jack was in our school, by pictures of the King, on toffee cans and other things that came from England. The Canadian Ensign flew over post offices and other public buildings.

The red-and-white striped flag I'd not seen before. This was before TV, and Canada still had a strong British influence, even in Calgary. (The US-funded oil boom had just started in 1947.)

When it came to choosing what flag we would buy, I did not hesitate. I may even have made up my mind before we came to the store. I wanted a Union Jack.

Not because of national sentiment. Not because of the Empire of Commonwealth. As a five year old I didn't know about those. Simply because I liked the bold red and the rich contrasting blue.

The Ensign with the crest struck me as insipid beside the Union Jack. The stars and strips had a very different feel to it. I was intrigued with a plastic version, that rolled up on the end of a stick like a candied apple holder. It shot out like one of those things you blow at a New Year's or a birthday party. I was intrigued by the mechanics of it, in contrast to flags you simply waved.

My father put an end to my speculation: "That's the United States flag," he said simply.

When we went to the parade, it was raining. Dad wondered if the top would be up on the convertible they were riding, but it was a Plexiglas top and we could still see them clearly.

Most of the flags along the route were Union Jacks like mine. There were some Canadian Ensigns and a few Stars and Stripes. Somewhere in the crowd someone may have launched one of the in-your-face wound up plastic flags I'd seen in the store.

Why would there be American flags greeting a Princess from England on a visit to Canada? The question didn't occur to me then. Looking back now, I can imagine two possibilities.

In the 1950's Calgary came to have the largest expatriate population of Americans of any Canadian city and these surely wanted to give their own greeting to our Royal visitors.

Second, the Princess's Canadian tour included a side trip to the American capital. The bi-national welcome may have been an unintentional warmup to the US trip to follow.