The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 23

lection 0 Wednesday, June 10, 1981 Piiii lii THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER ELS Don't make the mistake of confusing what everyone does with what's proper: A lady never leaves her house without a pair of white gloves. Miss Manners, Page C-5. TTTT An WHEN EVERY MVIS iv Air mi a XX AW '7 Vfc i -a UMlu ulM Lj, wsi MOST FLAGS made at National Flag Co. are printed on sheets of starched muslin, SEWING ON the gold fringe is one of the ttent In the nrorfurtion of cloth flaas 1 for Sup Mnrnhv at the National Flaa Co. in 1 mmfLZIZmimmmu.

4 as these Debra Ballman sorts. The company produces millions of flags each year. i wtwi I ViV 1" mm i ooo BY DAN BROGAN People Today Reporter Don't try to tag Art Schaller with the frequent complaint that television Is responsible for so many ills In American society. For him, It has meant big business the past two years. Schaller makes flags.

And ever since television riveted the hostage crisis in Iran on the minds of Americans, patriotism and flag sales have been soaring. "Patriotism is very high now," says Schaller, president of the National Flag in the West End. "The hostage thing brought it all back." And the new spirit hasn't subsided since the hostages returned in January. "That's an unfortunate way for us to get business," he says, "but it's good for the country so I guess I wouldn't change it either. We're busier now than we were during the Bicentennial." Lately, however, his plant at 1819 Freeman Ave.

Is especially busy. Besides the rejuvenated patriotism, the year's three biggest holidays for the flag business all arrive in one, six-week period. First Memorial Day, May 25; now Flag Day, coming up Sunday, and finally, only three weeks later, the Fourth of July. Bang. Bang.

Bang. No let up. No possible way to fall back on any existing stock. "Normally we keep a stock downstairs that we can fill most of our American flag orders from. Normally.

Right now we're way behind," Schaller says, adding with a laugh that "we'll catch up." After Memorial Day, "catching up" meant filling new orders on 300 gross (that's 43,200 flags) of little 3W Inch by 6-inch U.S. stick flags alone. Old Glory outsells all other types of flags 50-to-l, Schaller says. Which makes for a lot of American flags. Schaller says It's difficult to estimate the number of flags manufactured by his company each year, but the number would run in the millions If everything from the tiniest pin flag to the largest 20 foot by 30-foot outdoor flags were Included.

That makes National Flag one of the half dozen largest flag producers in the nation. But thanks to television, U.S. flags Schaller repeatedly calls the area "the factory," but the atmosphere is actually more like a family quilting bee. Dozens of bolts of brightly-colored nylon cloth dress up an otherwise drab work area. Birthday cards and photographs of children and grandchildren hung up on the walls add to the homey setting as the 30 or so seamstresses work around several 20-foot long tables.

National Flag, Schaller says, is more of a family operation than most companies. Two sons, an uncle and an aunt, plus other relatives on a part-time basis, comprise a good portion of the company's 40-employee work force. And even those who aren't members of the Schaller family are treated as if they were. Seven of the employees have worked more than 40 years and are now semlretired, working however many hours they choose. Once the background cloth for flag has been selected and cut to a pattern is traced onto it.

The pattern can either be custom-made to purchaser's specifications or drawn from the company's existing stock. An adjoining room holds literally thou-I sands of rolled patterns from past der-signs stored in drums. I "We save all the patterns because there are a lot of repeats," Schaller-says. "God knows how many there We used to have more. When we moved two years ago (from the old company plant at 1012 Flint St.) we; threw a lot of them out.

So far we've-been lucky; nobody's ordered one we I threw away." After the pattern has been traced, the correct colored cloth Is sewn qn; and the excess trimmed away. The-finished flag Is then sold through one' of the hundreds of distributors with; which the company deals. Many of the sewn flags are custom.4 designs ordered by schools, and churches. "They take up most of our time simply because they are different," There's usually a lot of Intricate stitching to be done, like on this explains Schaller, lifting a half-fin? I ished blue flag with a laurel wreath on it. "This is for the Special Olympics or I something like that, I guess.

Or, might be for something else. I don't' know, we Just make them." Enquirer photos BY DICK SWAIM the sheets are straightened, cut and mounted on dowel rods. Most companies have gone to much more automated systems of printing flags that feed continuous rolls of muslin into the press, but Schaller says he will stick with his "old friend." "We can be a lot more flexible with this press, because it's simpler. For example, we don't have to require such a large minimum order," he says. "With this press we're able to get you an order of say, 2,000 custom-printed flags, that no one else would touch." Schaller estimates that 90 of the company's flags are produced on the press tucked away In a small corner of the building.

Otherwise, nearly all of the first floor of the company's factory is used for making the larger flags. aren't the only kinds of banners the 112-year-old company Is running behind on. Confederate flags are In short supply, too. For months the company received increasing orders for the rebel flags. Not Just from down in the heart of Dixie, but from such Yankee strongholds as Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland.

The demand left Schaller more than Just a little perplexed. "Finally some huckster called up from Alabama, or somewhere, with a big order, and so I Just flat out asked him: don't understand, why are we selling so many of these Schaller says. "Dukes of Hazzard," was the quick 1 reply. "He said that show has everybody wanting those flags. He said people don't even ask for a 'Confederate' flag anymore, they want a 'Dukes of Hazzard' flag," Schaller says.

"It's become a novelty item. There's no political meaning, it's Just because of the show. We've sold more Confederate flags since that show's been on than we did in the last 10 years." Most of the Confederate and U.S. flags in such short supply during this holiday rush are smaller stick flags the kind you would see being waved at a parade. These are printed on sheets of cloth by a machine in the back corner of the factory.

Yard-square sheets of starched muslin are fed into the company's 125-year-old printing press, weave through several rollers coated with Ink and are then flipped out into the hands of an employee who stacks the sheets to dry on wooden grids. Later, inside At Dark, Blind DJ Breaks Sound Of Silence BY TONY LANG People Today Columnist Children can kick junk food habit Helping Yourself, Page C-4 i LSpK if Quota system 'forced' on us? Getting Along, Page C-6 Holding hands, the two of them look almost like schoolkids. Gail is teaching him to play cards. She cut out the figures to give him a tactile sense of, say, a Jack of Diamonds. "Nobody ever showed me there were pictures on cards before," he said.

"Of course, I don't really know what a picture is. I think of everything in terms of dots." Vaught isn't the only one making discoveries. Because of him, Gail has begun to re-examine every teaching technique she ever used. "I won't depend so much on visual techniques," she said. "I expect to do a lot more with feeling and touching." SHE ALSO expects no easy time of it up here job-hunting in today's market for a special ed post close to Vaught's work.

Vaught seems uncannily free of the raging frustrations that sometimes plague other handicapped people. Panic buttons do not seem part of his equipment. Even when he gets waitresses who assume he's brainless and speak to his companions Instead: "And what will the young man be having tonight?" Vaught laughed, "It kind of scares Gail that she has never seen me angry." They talk for hours about sueh subjects as photographs, though he knows he can never experience a photograph as she does. As we talked at LYK's studios, a workman was pounding in the basement. Music drifted from a radio.

Vaught suddenly remarked, "It's raining." Gail and I could see the rain on the windows, but we didn't hear it. He did. After checking with his light probe, he often reminds her to turn out lights. It Is a whole new world out there. Michael Vaught skimmed across WLYK's computer panel with his Star Wars-ish light probe.

The instant it found a lighted signal, his probe gave out a triumphant squeal letting him know which tape system was in play. Vaught, 28, works LYK's night owl shift, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. He announces news, weather and "beautiful music" for insomniacs and other creatures of the night. Night doesn't bother Vaught.

He has been blind since birth. "I don't know what light is," he smiled. "I take it on faith." The typical FM listener would never suspect he was blind. LYK owner Perry Samuels gave Vaught a shot at broadcasting in 1976, and the Ohio University graduate has been announcing there ever sinee. When LYK moved to new offices east of Milford, they moved Vaught "like part of the furniture," and modified their new system to keep him on the air.

MOST SWITCHES carry braille labels. Vaught will soon be able to use LYK's computer keyboard, after designers debug a voice synthesizer made expressly for his needs. "Bud Stagg, our former program director, taught me automation from the ropes up," Vaught said. "He taught me the principles, so it wasn't so hard for me to learn a different system." Veteran broadcaster Bob Jones recently Joined LYK's staff and likewise had to master a different control board. "One time I got into a panic trying to find what was wrong," Jones laughed.

"Mike came in, ran his MICHAEL VAUGHT at console with fiancee Gail Bullock. index pi People Today Editor RON SCHOOLMEESTER 369-101 1 ACTION LINE C-2 AROUND TOWN DEAR ABBY C-2 GETTING ALONG HELPING YOURSELF GAMESPUZZLES MISS MANNERS C-5 YOUR HEALTH Cj2. hand over the board and found the trouble. Generally, people feel sorry for someone who Is blind, but here he was leading me by the hand. It makes me feel good about life." This April, Vaught got engaged.

He met Gail Bullock, a special education teacher, through a mutual friend in Frankfort, Ky. "Every day," he said, "she is opening up a whole new world to me. I had thought a concrete relationship was an impossibility for me. But I realize now I just hadn't met the right person. It seems too good to be true-here I am, totally blind, and yet this lady with eyes didn't let that keep her from getting to know me.".