Chesapeake nursery grows patriotism in a big way

You haven't seen anything like it.

And then in the next second, you tell yourself, of course you have.

You're driving through chesapeake to the Outer Banks, or some other North Carolina destination via Va. 168, when it happens.

You pass the exit for the cupcake place and the Target and the signs for Hickory High School. You're staring out the window, desperate for something to happen en route to somewhere less remote, when you see what appears to be the world's largest American flag.

It's swaying heavily over

Greenbrier Farms just off Va. 168.

The flag is not just any flag. It contains enough fabric that Betsy Ross could have used it to sew uniforms for the Continental Army. Each stripe is more than a foot wide. It appears to be the kind of flag that's spread out on a football field at halftime... and is visible from space.

Is it the biggest flag in Hampton Roads? Well, that seems like hyperbole, says Devon Thompson, the nursery's special events manager.

"It's just giant," he says. "I can't even tell you" the exact dimensions.

But any artist knows that size is relative to an object's surroundings, and what's surrounding this flag near the Hillcrest Parkway exit is... not much.

Which means it looks even more gigantic.

If you want to be a stickler about the size, you have to talk to Buddy Bagley, because the former Chesapeake fire chief is the man people call when they need a flag like this.

Bagley is a self-described "flag guy." He has been one ever since his days stationed in Washington, D.C., during the Korean War. He doesn't fly a flag every day at his house, but he knows the proper etiquette for the days he does. He's helped some of the city's car dealerships navigate their issues with giant flags.

Bagley is Chesapeake's giant-flag pioneer. He's flown gigantic flags for nearly 29 years, starting with the Chesapeake Jubilee's fireworks show because he thought it would be the perfect backdrop.

And it was. People oohed and aahed. And the flag was so gigantic it needed to be hoisted not by a flagpole but by a crane.

A flag like that costs $485. Measures 30 by 20 feet.

And so the folks at Greenbrier Farms wanted a flag like that for their oyster festival last fall. They ran the giant flag up their standard-size flagpole, which is no easy task. It requires six people to make sure no part of the stars and stripes touches the ground, which is forbidden by the rules of flag etiquette. The flag flew right outside the nursery offices, a former farmhouse not far from route 168.

People noticed.

They called. How do we get to the giant flag? Exit 8A. A right. A left. A left. Another left, this time down a dead-end street. People arrived and snapped pictures in front of the flag.

People on Veterans Day called, just wanting to let nursery staff members know that it's a great flag and to thank them for flying it.

And sometimes people called to remind the nursery staff about all the finer points of etiquette. The flagpole probably isn't tall enough, the callers noted; it'd be impossible to fly the flag at half-staff.

After a violent storm, a new flag was needed.

Of course, the owners bought the same size. In less than a year, the flag has become a kind of landmark. Now, even if they wanted to, the nursery owners couldn't take the flag down.

So it flies, and the flagpole vibrates with the slightest of winds, above the nursery's tractors and petting rabbits.

"It's like a postcard," Thompson said.

"It's beautiful out there," Bagley said.

In the suburbs, people complain that the houses are too big. The stores are too big. The yards are too big.

No one's complained about the flag off 168.

If anything, they think the proper thing to do is buy a bigger flagpole.

Mike Gruss, (757) 446-2277, mike.gruss@pilotonline.com, PilotOnline.com/gruss