'This time I tried kicking the flag to try and salvage the situation': Woman shares hilarious and truly embarrassing scouting story

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 16, 2022 11:00 AM EST

One Twitter user shared her hilarious patriotism fail from many years ago. Basically, the story goes that the user, Kate, who goes by the handle @mcmansionh***, had one sacred duty as a scout. All she had to do was fold an American flag as gently and carefully as possible. She and the other scouts viewed this as a very sacred honor…but she kept accidentally messing up each time she tried her hand at flag folding!

Folks in the comments really resonated with this tale. Apparently around this time period, American patriotism was having a true moment, and lots of people remembered clearly. Check out Kate's excellent tale of accidental anarchism below! 

Then check out this long read about the Ultimate Karen, who believes she literally owns an apartment building even though she's in fact just a tenant. 

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  • 01
    Organism - 'I think I burned more American flags that summer than the most committed anarchist.'
    via Josh Campbell on Unsplash
  • 02
    Organism - kate wagner @mcmansionh can i tell my american flag story? i swear to christ this is entirely true and my mother can vouch for it. it goes like this: it's 2002. i was enrolled in girl scout camp in north carolina. at this camp, we all were assigned different chores every day like a little commune. 1/
    via mcmansionh***
  • 03
    Organism - kate wagner @mcmansionh 2/most of these chores sucked (sweeping bunks, cleaning toilets) but that iteration of summer camp i got put on flag duty. everyone wanted to do flag duty bc it was easy and cool. this was also the first post-9/11 summer so everyone took flag duty deathly seriously. 40 DM Den 10 0000
    via mcmansionh***
  • 04
    Organism - kate wagner @mcmansionh 3/ i was around 8 at the time and really clumsy. every morning, we would take the flag out, unfold and fly it in the morning while everyone stood in a circle midsommar style with their hand over their heart saying the pledge. (the ritual took forever)
    via mcmansionh***
  • 05
    Font - kate wagner @mcmansionh 4/unfolding was easy. but folding the flag up- for some reason i, as a child, could NOT figure that out. like something in my stupid child mind could not do the little walking thing where you take the flag from the other girls, trading corners with one another to fold it up -
    via mcmansionh***
  • 06
    Font - kate wagner @mcmansionh : 5/ did i mention that this was post-9/11 in the South? the councilors were crazy for flag protocol. it was REHEARSED. we said the pledge like we were in military school. and if you dropped the flag, shame be upon you. we'd have to burn it, per tradition. (america!)
    via mcmansionh***
  • 07
    Organism - kate wagner @mcmansionho 6/ everyone in the camp, like fifty girls, watched me that first evening on flag duty. we'd practiced before. but lo and behold, i can still see it in slow motion, the fabric slipping out of my grubby little hands and caressing the dirt. The gasps. my eyes wide. I dropped it.
    via mcmansionh***
  • 08
    Font - kate wagner @mcmansionh 7/ so the councilors took me to the fire and made me burn the f flag. they knew it was an accident but they were still stern about respecting the country etc. i begged for another chance and i got one. they had a lot of flags in a cabinet, so it wasn't a big deal.
    via mcmansionh***
  • 09
    Font - kate wagner @mcmansionh 8/ the next evening i try another position on flag duty. the bottom left corner. i get the flag and all i have to do is walk over to the other girl and make the first fold. guess what? i dropped it again. except this time i tried kicking the flag to try and salvage the situation
    via mcmansionh***
  • 10
    Cheezburger Image 9719445760
    via mcmansionh***
  • 11
    Font - kate wagner @mcmansionh 9/ and guess what? they really did make me burn this flag again. (I was learning an important lesson about patriotism.) By this point I was like the al qaeda of girl scout camp and no one wanted to talk to me. i was deeply mortified. but they gave me one last chance.
    via mcmansionh***
  • 12
    Font - kate wagner @mcmansionhell 11/ i will give you one guess what happened. i swear God himself was looking down on me and saying 'kate wagner it is your fate to be an enemy of the state' or something because while i was making the fold, the flag slipped worse than it had ever slipped. it was a full drop.
    via mcmansionh***
  • 13
    Font - kate wagner @mcmansionh 12/ this time i burst into tears and ran into the woods. the councilor had to call my mom to come pick me up. also i had to burn the flag again. this was my first taste of real, true, public humiliation. in retrospect it was deeply surreal, a true post-9/11 experience
    via mcmansionh***
  • 14
    World - kate wagner @mcmansionh 13/ anyway, every time, and i mean every time, i see someone raise the american flag i think about this. i can still smell that burning plastic-y, canvas-y smell. i think i burned more american flags that summer than the most committed anarchist. so there. that's my flag story. :
    via mcmansionh***
  • 15

    She really tried her hardest! At least they did for some reason have unlimited backup flags.

    Font - kate wagner @mcmansionh i should say now, in retrospect, i almost cry laughing thinking about it. THEY MADE ME BURN THREE FLAGS. the girl scout camp had a whole a cabinet of spare flags!!!
    via mcmansionh***
  • 16
    Sky - kate wagner @mcmansionho the freedom fries era, everyone!!!
    via mcmansionh***
  • 17

    Commenters were pretty thrilled with the funny tale, and some even shared their own scouting tales.

    Sky - WIN mate @jon_bois Dec 12 Jon Bois Replying to @mcmansionh lol thank you for sharing this
    via mcmansionh***
  • 18
    World - 088 Vieve DeJoy @VieveDeJoy Replying to @mcmansionh I swear Yo this same thing happened to me in GS camp in Alabama but it was 1996 they gotta stop making children carry flags when the stakes are so high
    via mcmansionh***
  • 19
    Font - Robin @robinelizabth : Replying to @mcmansionh Dude I 100% believe this, I was also in Girl Scouts around that time and the girls in my troop would talk about how we'd have to burn the flag if it touched the ground and I always thought they were joking (we got to fold it as a group, luckily)
    via mcmansionh***
  • 20
    Player - ThisDancingHeart. Replying to @mcmansionh NG A STAND NATIONAL THEM @thisdancing... Dec 13 E
    via mcmansionh***
  • 21
    Font - Katie @katiedidwhat : Replying to @mcmansionh Irony here is that while, yes, burning or burying are appropriate, it's also meant to be done in private and with respect. But people leave that part out to perform radical patriotism like this. I was a GS camp counselor that year & I fought this garbage HARD.
    via mcmansionh***
  • 22
    Organism - Mike... Byhoff? Replying to @mcmansionh The most bizarre thing about this story is that you couldn't hold onto a flag in 3 tries! Like...is your hand-eye coordination okay? 1 @mbyhoff 18h [] . kate wagner @mcmansionh Replying to @mbyhoff i continue to be bad at folding things in any way whatsoever. my fitted sheets are a ball stuffed in a drawer. • 15h
    via mcmansionh***
  • 23
    Font - Biscuit, Esq. @Jason RogersESQ : Replying to @mcmansionh I was on flag duty for my elementary school in fifth grade. The worst that happened was us accidentally flying the flag upside down and the Marine base across the street called and sarcastically asked if we were under duress. Simpler times.
    via mcmansionh***
  • 24
    Font - lowa Airspace @Airspacelowa Dec 13 Replying to @mcmansionh The thing is there's such a stupid dichotomy about flags-on the one hand people act like "the flag is sacred but on the other hand people wear American flag prints on clothes and have American flag mud flaps and alter the flag with grey stripes a blue line ""
    via mcmansionh***
  • 25
    Font - Jared Dryden @Jared Dryden · 17h Replying to @mcmansionh So cursed. In my BSA council they collected all the old flags needing "retired" and burned them all in one fire. Also kind freaking weird
    via mcmansionh***
  • 26
    Font - Mike Tremblay @mtrem2 Replying to @mcmansionh Meanwhile this was the start of an era of large scale disregard for other areas of the flag code - flags on paper plates, flags on old navy t-shirts, flags flapping, frayed and faded, on cars.
    via mcmansionh***
  • 27
    Font - Ben Taylor @getbentCHI Replying to @mcmansionh 10/10, no notes, would burn again
    via mcmansionh***

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usa FAIL kids summer fire america camping american girl scouts flag
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