'Flag Lady' Recalls Stars and Stripes Surge After 9/11

Jan Hartman, owner of in Wayne, has been selling flags since 1992.

But in nearly twenty years in the business, it is September 11, 2001 and the days and weeks following it that are most seared into her memory, she said. She will never forget that time because of how emotional and great the demand for the “Stars and Stripes” was.

Just hours after the first tower was hit, people and phone calls poured into her store seeking a flag that they could fly. Manufacturers were hit in their off season, and the surge in demand caught shops like her off guard. The supply could not keep up with the demand.

“People wanted to do something when there really wasn’t something they could do,” she said.

They could not stop the lives from being lost, but they could show their support by flying the flag of the United States of America.

There is “ no question” that there is a resurgence in flag orders for the date this year, Hartman said.

“We definitely feel that people are remembering the tenth anniversary,” she said.