Dans Papers - June 8, 2007 - The Land Of Bicyclists, Osprey Nests And The Free

Flags of our fathers - mothers, sisters, and brothers, too. They're all over the North Fork and most often we take no particular notice of them. Like the air we breathe or the mid-June sun that warms us.

Then, in that same June, a certain day comes around and we think, "Oh yeah, June 14 is Flag Day."

Next week, as a matter fact. So no better time to check out a few of those North Fork flags. We're talking about American flags and not the decorative flowery things that float over so many front doors. Or the banners that wave WELCOME or shout SALE from so many of the shops lining Main Road from Riverhead to Orient.

Of course there are thousands of American flags on the North Fork. Flying from porches, attached to bicycle handlebars, topping fences. So many of them we don't even notice.

And then, not expecting to, we come across a North Fork American flag that kind of stops us short, gets our attention and affection. Reminds us what it's all about.

Like when you're coming to Long Island from a few days spent in New England. An hour or so on the Cross Sound Ferry, the North Fork, home. You see it then, the American flag at the entrance to Orient Beach State Park. You see it and you just feel good.

For here, at the park, the flag flies over the land of the free as well as the land of bicyclists and osprey nests. The land of hikers, kayakers and picnic lunches. Of birdwatchers, bay watchers.

Travel west a bit and there's another American flag that will get you thinking. I suppose that's appropriate. After all, isn't thinking what school is for? The Oysterponds Elementary School on Main Road raises a flag that acknowledges what is happening in the comfortable building across the wide lawn. Children learning. Perhaps it's a history lesson they'll not appreciate till years later. Or maybe they're struggling with long division (they still do long division, don't they?). In any case, the kids are in school. The gift of American-flag citizens to those who will carry on.

Down the road there's a pretty impressive flag that takes you by surprise. You're traveling west through Southold. Maybe it's a summer Saturday afternoon so Main Road is crowded with cars, the sidewalks with shoppers and even Silversmith's Corner on Main Road and Youngs Avenue has people milling about. Probably there for a concert. Anyway, you'll pass Southold Library and Town Hall and St. Patrick Church. Nothing unusual. You've done it all before.

But then the road curves and the American Legion Griswold-Terry-Glover Post 803 is right in front of you. Their American flag is right in front of you. And you know that those who sacrificed for that flag have given you all you've just passed - the shops, the churches, the libraries, the town halls. Even the music.

It's just a few minutes away from the American Legion - this next flag. And it's quite a bit smaller. But impressive nonetheless, for here Old Glory keeps vigil over the Old Burying Ground in Cutchogue. On the corner of Main Road and Harbor Lane, the cemetery, owned and maintained by the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Historical Council, has weathered gravestones dating back to the early 1700s.

Look closely at those gravestones and you'll see that the American flag flies over names synonymous with North Fork. Tuthill and Case. Terry and Wells. Horton and Goldsmith. Some who own those names were given back to the earth even before our flag saw its birth. The grand old flag really isn't so old.

It seems fitting that our flag-tour concludes with the flag in the center of the traffic circle on Route 58 in Riverhead. Here is where the action is. North, south, east, west. We travel in all directions, to schools, and malls, to courts, hotels and a hospital. Most of the time we travel the circle courteously, easing in when we can, following the rules. Maybe that's what the Riverhead flag is telling us. That we have to drive and live by a few rules. Easing in when we can.

Funny thing about a circle. You come back to where you started. That's just fine if you're coming back to the North Fork.