"Say Uncle!!!!"

 Here's a very loose follow-up, to my last post about my dad. Everyone has a dad. And, some of us are fortunate to have uncles. Trying to remember, it took me a minute to count my uncles. I had five, and only one that I really knew well. Also, there was also a group of great uncles, who can be remembered mostly for their persistent and consistently annoying habit of tickling little girls. 

Uncles. We're all familiar with some very famous uncles. Some, like Uncle Ben and Uncle Remus, are politically incorrect, so we don't talk about them, anymore. John Candy was very funny as Uncle Buck, and who didn't like Uncle Fester and Disney's Uncle Scrooge?

Perhaps, the most famous uncle of all, is Uncle Sam. Images of Uncle Sam have been around since the War of 1812. However, the caricatures of this fictional character became most popular and well circulated, when James Montgomery Flagg, drew his famous WWI Poster "I Want YOU, for the U.S. Army". That one and others that Flagg drew, around 1917, were published everywhere. Uncle Sam, pointing at the viewer, certainly ranks up there, among the three or four most reproduced portraits in history. What could be more patriotic, than a self-portait by a guy, actually named Flagg? 

So, how did the portrait become the most well known portrait of Uncle Sam. Well, that comes from the nickname derived from a meat packing stamp. Rations sent to soldiers, during this second conflict with England, our War of 1812, carried the stamp U.S.! Sam Wilson, New York meat packer and supplier, was locally known as Uncle Sam Wilson. Soldiers began calling the rations "Uncle Sams". Somehow, a hundred years later, Flagg's portrait became Uncle Sam, recruitment icon for the United States Army.

Okay, there you go. More inane information from your Blogger Friend. But, as you celebrate the 250th Birthday of the U.S.A. , you can now contribute to any patriotic conversation, with your newly acquired, historically accurate, (likely, perhaps) knowledge. No need to give me credit and be sure to freely add any stories about your own uncles.

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 Dear Lord. We are thankful and blessed.