Truck (flagpole)

June 10th, 2010 by admin

Page 2 of 2 | Previous page

Posted in columns, May 2010 | 3 comments

Previous post:
Next post:

3 comments on this post.

  1. jay:

    December 15th, 2011 at 10:54 am

    You misspelled the word. The round, ballish ornament at the top of most flag poles is called a “truk” without the letter “C” and still pronounced “Truck”.

    It represents the “Shot heard around the world”, more commonly known as the start of the Revolutionary War / War of Independence. The “shot heard around the world” is the colloquialism used to refer to the first shots fired in Lexington during the beginning stages of the Revolutionary War / War of Independence.

  2. Andrew:

    July 4th, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    I’ve heard it said that the “truk” was a spillover from navy ships’ yardarm ends, to they contain three articles: a razor, a match and a bullet, to it represents the severed human head of the vanquished army’s leader, as was once stuck on the end of a spear.

    Turns out that none of the “romantic” sybolisms are accurate. It is simply there to keep rain out of a hollow flagpole. They tried an eagle, but the flag kept wrapping around it. It is put on a solid flagpole just to be consistent.

    Sometimes the truth can slap you upside your face!

  3. Robert L. Stephens:

    May 9th, 2013 at 12:00 am

    The ball (eagle, or whatever) at the top of a flagpole is a finial. The Truck (five letter word) an be made as part of the ball but almost never is. The truck is a device below the finial which allows the halyard to run through it and reverse directions. Check with any flagpole maker and they will tell you that. There is nothing in the finial, and nothing buried in the base, unless some individual place it there. The finial does not represent the “shot heard around the world,” finials being used long before the revolutionary war. I spent many years trying to correct these things while in the Army but people would rather use a good tale than the truth.

Leave a comment