Laurie Marcum says she thinks her father would be proud to know the flag that adorned his casket is now flying in the window of her Broadway Street furniture store. (Baker City Herald photograph by S. John Collins).

By MIKE FERGUSON

Of the Baker City Herald

The American flag that Laurie Marcum displays in her large picture window at Elkhorn Furniture on Broadway once shrouded her fathers casket.

A World War II veteran with the Army Corps of Engineers, Lowell D. Chally died in 1996 and was buried with military honors.

Hed be proud that wed used it, instead of just leaving it in the closet, Marcum said. Dad was a patriot.

As the community prepares to honor its local emergency workers police, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians this evening at 6 p.m. with a parade down Main Street, Baker City merchants have given parade-goers a red, white and blue backdrop in which to enjoy the event.

They say theyre showing their solidarity with the victims and their families of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and the rescue workers who lost their lives trying to save them by filling their windows with the stars and stripes, patriotic bunting, or, in one case, uniforms and equipment used by area emergency workers.

Its a sentiment thats well received among the public.

People will come by and tap the window, smile, and give us the thumbs up sign, said Dixie Amis, a stylist at Landamp;L Hair Company in the Basche-Sage Place. Amis teamed with Glenda Hylton to create a museum-quality display of uniforms and equipment from paramedics, police, sheriffs deputies, state police, and firefighters.

We didnt know about the parade when we did this on Monday, she said, but we hope that more people will come to the parade as a result of this.

The whole city says thank you to the people who protect us, and not just our shop.

For salon owner Becky Bryant, the display is even more personal: her husband, Josh Bryant, is an officer with the Baker City Police Department.

When Amis first approached Bryant with the display concept, Bryant said she signed off on the idea immediately.

People get really mad when the police give them a ticket, but these are people who are out there doing good every day, she said after taking time to affix badges to the uniforms of police and sheriffs deputies artfully displayed in her window. My husband likes the display. He says it makes him feel good.

At Ryder Brothers Stationery Store on Main Street, floor manager Karla Price says that customers have reacted favorably to a display strategy the store has used before: flying each of the flags of the 50 states indoors from the second-floor balcony.

Its a visual reminder of the nations unity, she said.

People come into the store just to look at the flags, she said. They think its great that we have the flags of the 50 states.

Typically, she said, a display of flags depicting the founding of the country including the famous Dont tread on me flag with a snake in the foreground

See Displays/Page 2