Posted on 06/24/2020 5:43:07 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
There aren’t many Alabama businessmen whose comments make the pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post on the same weekend.
And there are no others along a stretch of U.S. 431 outside Anniston on the way to Lake Wedowee, besides Bob Castello. The 68-year-old former traveling salesman is the owner of the Dixie General Store, one of the places where those who want to remember the Confederacy take their stand and buy its emblems. And not in Confederate dollars, either, although you can buy replicas of them there.
NASCAR’s ban on the Confederate flag brought out merchants at Talladega this weekend, and demonstrations nationwide - and in Birmingham - have brought down monuments to Civil War figures of both the Confederacy and the Union over the last month. But Castello has been selling flags from this roadside store - about 30 miles from the racetrack - for more than five years, and been talking to journalists for about that long, as he did this weekend for stories on the enduring sales of the flag.
He says he has welcomed visitors of all races to the store, been visited by shoppers from every state and 29 countries, and received calls of support from Black local citizens in Cleburne County. Only rarely does he get a visitor who wants to do more than discuss what the flag means.
“Somebody last month said we shouldn’t be selling that racist stuff,” he said. “I just told him he needed to leave and never come back. I’ll talk to anybody. Usually it’s pleasant conversations.”
Castello has Confederate battle flags, regiment flags, sovereign state flags adopted after secession. You can pick up a 12-foot by 18-foot battle flag for $275, for example. You can even buy a rebel flag mask for the pandemic. A flag flying outside urges people to respect, protect and preserve Confederate monuments, and inside, you can buy photographs of monuments suitable for framing. There are T-shirts, dresses, custom holsters and bumper stickers, all with some variation of the stars and bars.
There’s also plenty of merchandise devoted to the 45th president. Trump flags, Trump hats, and merchandise with Donald Trump’s head photo-shopped onto the body of Sylvester Stallone from the Rambo movies are just some of your options.
After years on the road, Castello noticed Confederate memorabilia selling at flea markets and thought a central store selling the goods in a rural setting might do well. He has always been fascinated by the Civil War, remembering a family member who joined up at the age of 46 to take on Sherman’s army during its march through Georgia. As a child, he remembers a family heirloom sword which belonged to a soldier.
Castello said he makes a lot of the merchandise, as it is getting harder to find domestic companies that sell products with Confederate emblems. He sees a day when major manufacturers, wishing to eschew controversy, stop altogether. Alabama Flag & Banner, located in Huntsville, sells the flag but would not speak for this story. Internet searches also turn up other products featuring the Confederate flag.
Castello had a court case with the Alabama Department of Transportation three years ago dealing with his flag display off Interstate 20, which flies flags and features an image of Gen. Robert E. Lee. He contended the displays were on his own property. The case was eventually settled.
“Some people have stopped doing it (manufacturing Confederate flags),” he said. “If they basically intimidate all the American companies into not making them anymore, they’ll just be made in China. It’s not going to stop. That’s all they’ll accomplish.”
Castello said he doesn’t see the flag as an emblem of slavery, as most of the soldiers in the Confederate Army were poor farmers who did not own slaves. He also thinks that attempts to “jerk down statues” will only bring more customers. Incidents like the killing of George Floyd, or the 2015 mass killing of nine Black worshippers in a Charleston, S.C. church are evil, he said, but he sees no connection between them and the Confederate flag. He hopes to continue selling them as long as he is able.
“A lot of people are very angry at being told their heritage is evil,” he said. “Big corporations and big government telling them what to think makes them mad. Now you see them going after George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt, and that’s not acceptable.”
Place down in Branson - Dixie Outfitters - is getting the same kind of hassles.
If he was selling white flags, knee pads, and shoeshine kits, he would be getting high praise, and probably have long lines waiting to buy them.
Bump
The lefties will be coming after him soon enough
My brother and his wife went to Italy several years ago. He was surprised to see that the Stars and Bars were a popular item there in novelty stores.
Since the only market for those items are liberals, his business would suffer due to a lack of customers around his location.
The question isn’t so much about the Confederate flag as it is freedom and liberty.
Is a store owner allowed to sell such items?
The answer is yes. This is America. You can disagree with that flag but you’re not forced to go into this store and buy any.
People in this country are supposed to be free to choose. If it is a right to choose to kill a baby through abortion, then you have a right to choose to buy or own a Confederate flag.
I don’t own one, myself. I’m an Alabamian and never cared for it, one way or the other. But I’ll tell, y’all, I am very tempted to go up to this store and buy the biggest flag he’s got... For what $275? I think it might be worth it to put it in the back of my truck and drive around some. I probably won’t for personal reasons.
I have black friends and they do oppose the flag. I asked them, seriously, why?
They said not for the war or the Confederacy, they knew that was part of history. It was the Segregationists in 1940s and 50s who adopted this flag in their fight to keep Jim Crow laws in place. Now I know that’s not why most people fly it today but that is their perception.
It is only because those black folks are my friends and neighbors that I won’t wave this flag, but I will never condemn those who do, and will always be ready to defend their right to do so.
I live in rural good ole boy country Alabama. That’s not true.
Plenty of folks have this flag. Young fellas on the pickup trucks with one of those pickup bed flag stands. Mostly they’ll fly an Crimson Tide flag or an Auburn flag, especially during college football season, but lately I’ve been seeing a lot more of these with the Confederate flags instead.
I think they’re selling out as fast as they can make ‘em. It’s simply defiant freedom of speech. Those big flags aren’t cheap.
He is the most liberal person you will ever meet, BUT, he is also one of the staunchest defenders of the Confederate flag you will ever meet.
Sometimes cognitive dissonance works in positive ways.
I saw that story on KY3...
Even the biker has one.
These flags aren't cheap, either. Several thousand bucks in this one shot alone.
Not because of my “heritage” (obviously), but because I’ve about had it with the PC groupthink.
Notice all the trucks with Confederate Flags are not inside watching Bubba lose or home watching NASCAR or buy NASCAR carp. NASCAR is the loser.
Glad to see the old Georgia Flag on the wall in the picture. I still have on that flew at my workplace before the new worlds ugliest flag became the new GA flag
Lock and load.
Spirit of Atlanta Drum & Bugle Corps, ‘83-’86. When we went to Retreat, which is when all the corps gather on the field for the score announcements, our bass drum section would stack the drums and hang Confederate flags off each side.
You’ll find more than just a few flying in E. Central, MN. Some of us had ancestors, who fought on both sides. We chose to honor them all.
Others are fed up with the speech police, and fly them in defiance.
Buy Confederate flags! Be proud of Robert E Lee, J E B Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, and the hundreds of General Officers and field grade officers who gave their all for the rights of states to settle their own affairs.
Segregationists were all DEMOCRATS. Remember that! Democrats fought against the Civil Rights Act And the Voter Rights Act. Don’t forget that.
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