The Allen Ginter Project: Card #3 - N11 Flags From the States And Territories

While on most of these sets I'm going my the seat of my pants when deciding which card to get for my type set, there are a few cards I am specifically targeting. The Songbirds set is a real bitch to find, but if I can manage to track down a Brown Thrasher card I'm going for it. I'm almost certain that unless I find a different one dirt cheap, I'm targeting the Peccary for my Quadrupeds card. The Fruits set features a bunch of pictures of disgustingly adorable children eating assorted fruit while being obnoxiously cute. The Huckleberry card is particularly horrific and would probably cause me to fall into a diabetic coma if I got it. The only one that's any good at all is the Crabapple card which features a young boy falling out of an apple tree presumably to his painful death. That's the card for me! When I found an auction for this card here, I put a whopping bid in for it immediately and dared someone to beat it.

I picked this one up from As Time Goes By along with my N4 card. They have become my go-to place for these cards although I am having a very hard time stating focused and not buying up other cool stuff. I'm expecting a package from them and if I get it by Monday, one of the cards in it will be Card of the Week. It's seriously the most fantastic thing you've ever seen on cardboard. They don't make 'em that that anymore. Back on topic, I'm from Georgia so naturally I wanted the Georgia state flag card. This one is typical of the series. Big flag, small scene from the state, a motto in the corner, the A&G advertising banner and lots of gold ink. Georgia's scene is of the port of Savannah, lots of ships and smokestacks. It's pretty detailed considering it's squashed between the flag and the ad. The state motto, "Empire State of the South", is on the bottom left corner in red letters in a black background. I suppose Red & Black is appropriate for GA, but it's hard to read. The checklist is a cool snapshot of America in the 1880's. There are only 47 cards in the set instead of the usual 50. Arizona, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Washington and Wyoming are all territories. Oklahoma is called Indian Territory and North and South Dakota is still combined in the Dakota Territory. Alaska and Hawaii are nowhere to be found, although Hawaiian Islands can be found in the Flags of all Nations set.


The flag designs are very different from the ones we have today. Almost all of them are virtually the same, a blue field with the state seal on it surrounded by gold trim. Georgia's seal features an arch representing Wisdom, Justice and Moderation. The University of Georgia has those arches standing at the entrance of the school. They have a magical power - if a freshman walks through the arches they are permanently rendered sterile. Or at least that's what the upper classmen tell them. There's usually a pretty long line in front of the arch on weekend nights when the pharmacy runs out of condoms. There's also a rather high pregnancy rate among freshmen. Hey, it's Georgia, what do you expect? At least we beat Florida!

I really wanted a Georgia flag card because our state has had a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about our flag recently. It used to have the Confederate Battle flag on it until a few years ago. The Confederate Flag was added in the 50's by the state legislature to protest all the civil rights stuff that was going on. In the late nineties there was a lot of consternation about having a Confederate symbol on the flag. Well, actually, 90% of the population didn't give a shit about the flag, or thought the flag was the checkered one they waved at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but 70% of the 10% who cared didn't like it. Governor Zell Miller tried to get it changed, but the House blocked him. His successor, Roy Barnes, pushed through a goofy-ass compromise flag that was rightly voted the Ugliest Flag Ever. This caused the people who actually liked the Confederate flag to go absolutely batshit crazy. Even the 90% who didn't care were taken aback, having recently been burned by another hideous symbol of Atlanta that had been designed by a committee of retards.

The next election came around and the state had by that time shifted from Blue to Red. The Republican candidate, Sonny Perdue, decided to pander to the crazies to absolutely ensure his victory. He promised a referendum on the flag if he was elected. The rednecks ate it up and swept Sonny into power. Sonny was true to his word and held a referendum, and voters got to choose between the ugly-ass flag and a brand new flag that was snuck through the legislature. It was similar to the pre-1950's flag and had no sign of the Battle flag anywhere on it. The Rebel sympathizers have been losing their minds ever since even though the new flag looks almost identical to the official flag of the Confederate States of America. The 90% who don't care looked at the new flag, said, "ooooh pretty colors" and have never thought of the flag ever again, thus ensuring that it will stick around for a while no matter how loud a few people bitch about it. I like the new flag, but I do agree with the seperationists that an important part of Georgia's heritage has been wiped away with the change.

YEEEEEEEHAAAAAWWWWWWW!!!!!