In last year’s Man Cave article for July, I talked about grilling and drinking beer and all manner of manly mischief and amusements. This year, despite my usual reluctance to wax politics in this format but with respect to the current climate, I would like to tell the story of a particular BBQ.

Some 50 years ago, my grandfather James Edward McGinnis (a Marine Corps WWII Veteran) built a house on the lake for his family to enjoy in perpetuity. It is as much a part of his legacy as are our liberties and prosperity for which he paid with a body full of shrapnel at a young age.

A couple of years ago I was there with my extended family to BBQ for the 4th of July, a holiday that we take very seriously. My eldest daughter was playing with a little paper American flag and dropped it on the ground near the fire pit. It was then that my father (who retired after 35 years of active duty from the US Army in the highest possible enlisted rank of Sergeant Major) told my little girl to take the flag to daddy and ask him what should happen now and why.

So there I am with the old Sergeant Major, my wife (a global war on terrorism US Navy non-commissioned officer), and my little brother (a US Army engineer), as I found myself (an operation enduring freedom combat veteran) trying to tell my 4-year-old the story of Old Glory and why we keep her off the deck.

I explained the singing of the Declaration and that the stars and stripes came a year later. I walked her through the stars representing the states. I explained that the last time the flag changed was in 1960 after Hawaii became a state. Then I took out my pocket knife, dutifully separated the stars from the stripes, and explained the difference between burning the flag and retiring the flag.

Through all of this, I wept. It was hard to do. I get that way every time I do a flag retirement or present colors to a widow (which I have not had to do for several years now). What was really staggering though was the level to which my daughter seemed to understand all of it.

So this year, when you have the dogs on the grill and a cold beer close at hand, please by all means revel and cajole and make general merriment. But do spare us a thought for they that came before and that stalwart old flag.