Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103070210
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Long
Round her neck she wore a yellow ribbon,
She wore it fall and winter, and in the month of May;
And if you asked her why the heck she wore it,
She'd say it's for her lover who is far, far away
Yellow ribbons began appearing around the nation soon after U.S. troops started shipping out for the Persian Gulf in August, and their numbers have just kept growing.
Now they cover the gazebo in Pulaski's Jackson Park.
They hang in windows of homes.
They hang in stores and businesses.
They fly from every tree along Main Street and beyond.
When the nearly 100 troops from Pulaski County begin coming home, it's a safe bet that spring will have competition from even more yellow ribbons sprouting from the windows and the trees.
Pulaski Mayor Gary Hancock this week pledged the town's cooperation in any ceremony welcoming the county's 89 troops back home.
But the mayor suggested a change from the traditional welcome: Instead of the troops marching past a cheering crowd, why not seat them outside in some place of honor and have the town and county march by?
Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree.
The first song was published in the late 1830s under the title "All Around My Hat" but was changed toward the end of the 19th century by soldiers away from their loved ones.
It was the theme of "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon," a 1949 John Wayne movie about the U.S. cavalry in the last century.
"Tie A Yellow Ribbon" was a 1973 hit song by Tony Orlando and Dawn, and yellow ribbons became a symbol for the U.S. hostages held by Iran in the late 1970s.
Now yellow ribbons are symbols of support for U.S. troops and awaiting their return.
Just three days before President George Bush announced the cease-fire in the Persian Gulf on Feb. 27, Dr. Winsdon Pound urged the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors to start planning to welcome the service people home.
"We want to give them a hero's welcome because they're fighting for the freedom of the world," said Pound, who was appearing before the board on a totally different matter.
He suggested that the county join the towns of Pulaski and Dublin in a countywide planning process.
Doris Lawson, secretary to the town's police chief, has been plugging for the display of electric candles with yellow bows in windows as a symbol of support - and welcome - when the troops come home.
Lawson, a widow, is known around Pulaski as "the lady with the hats" because she usually wears one. But lately she has become known as the lady with the ribbons and candles.
She got the idea from a minister on television, but "I was reluctant to do it." She finally put a candle in one of the 26 windows of her big house in Pulaski's historic district.
"Then I decided it was silly just to burn one," she said. "I just turned them all on."
They have been on since the start of the air war in the Middle East in January.
She suggested the same kind of candles for the 24 windows in the municipal building, and Town Manager Don Holycross said yes.
Lawson has helped encourage others to mount similar displays in their homes - "and fly a lot of flags," she added. "I've been flying my flag ever since the war started. It was purchased when [President John F.] Kennedy was assassinated" Nov. 22, 1963.
It was on Jan. 26 - 10 days after the allies started the air war over Baghdad - that the tide of ribbons turned into a flood in Pulaski's Jackson Park.
People with family and friends in Saudi Arabia brought ribbons bearing the names of their loved ones to place on the park's gazebo.
Thousands turned out for that rally, organized mainly by Jim Delehanty, then general manager of Pulaski Motor Co., who became angry after seeing a U.S. flag burned on television. He recently became general manager at Holiday Ford in Blacksburg.
The idea spread.
C.E. Boyd at the Hatcher-Askew & Co. clothing store on Main Street decided the downtown business section should be ribbonized, too.
"We just thought it'd be a nice thing to have them," he said. "I said, `Let's get 'em up and we'll fund it.'"
He bought enough ribbon from Dawn's Florist to bedeck the 50-some small trees that had been planted to beautify downtown Pulaski. The flower shop also provided the people to put up the ribbons.
"It feels like the least we could do. It's so important," Boyd said.
Sandra Hull, who works down the street at Advance Health Care Services Inc., saw the ribbons and wondered who was behind the project. She found out when she wondered aloud to Boyd's wife.
When she learned that Boyd had paid for the ribbons, she gave him some money to help. She was surprised recently to learn that she was the only one to do so.
"Now wait a minute - bless his heart, it was him," she said when asked about her role in the downtown ribbons.
Recovering from a bout with pneumonia, Hull still was busy last week putting pictures of Pulaski County's service men and women on stars to place in the window where she works.
She wants them to see that kind of welcome "when they come home, which I hope is soon."
Other businesses also have sought to honor Pulaski County service people.
Among the first was Clarence Webb, manager of Pulaski's Golden Corral, who started hanging names and photographs of Pulaski service personnel along the restaurant's serving line soon after U.S. troops were mobilized after the Iraqi takeover of Kuwait Aug. 2.
The war has affected Pulaskians of all ages, from Joshua Raymond Bessler - born Feb. 19 while his father was with the Marines in Kuwait - to 68-year old Army retiree George Albright, who re-enlisted and left for Fort Eustis last week. He had already served in three wars.
Maybe Saddam Hussein has been watching Pulaski, too. He ordered the retreat from Kuwait about the time Albright joined up again.
FOR THE RECORD
PUBLISHED CORRECTION RAN FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1991
Because of a reporter's error, Doris Larson's name was misspelled Thursday in a New River Current article about Pulaski showing its patriotism with yellow ribbons.
Memo: correction