My husband, an Army veteran, served as judge of the 91st District Court of Michigan for 24 years before retiring in 2008. He has plenty of stories of incidents that happened both in an out of his courtroom, but this is my favorite.
After 9-11, everyone across the country flew American flags to show their patriotism and solidarity and our household was not to be outdone. The judge decided the best place to display our brand new flag was under the halogen light at the peak of the garage.
A few weeks later a gust of wind blew the flag up and conveniently wrapped it around the hot light bulb. Fortunately, he was raking leaves at the time and noticed the smoke coming from the front of the garage and quickly grabbed a ladder, but not quite quick enough.
The smouldering flag burst into flames and thinking quickly, the judge ripped the flag from around the light and threw it to the ground. Doing what comes naturally, he proceeded to stomp out the flames. In summary....
One halogen light . . . $39.95
One flammable flag . . . $16.95
The looks on people's faces driving by at the sight of the district judge stomping on a burning American Flag . . . priceless.
Drummond Island, MI
