Wacky and wonderful, the CrosStar Flag and Tag Museum in Afton tugs tourists into a satisfyingly bizarre collection of oddities gathered by owner and operator Al Childs. Since opening in June 2022, the 150-foot by 150-foot museum has grown in variety and popularity. It’s eye candy on Route 66.
About 100 mostly international tourists drop in every day. A welcoming host, Childs, 77, happily escorts them through the building and grounds, explaining what they are seeing. “…one of my main sayings here is, ‘I guarantee you you’ll smile and laugh out loud or I’ll give your money back,’” he told two visitors. “You’re supposed to say, ‘Well, how much you charge? ‘Nothing!” is his answer.
There’s no entrance fee because, “I like Route 66 and there was some places I stopped at in 1976, it didn’t cost me a thing to see stuff like this, you know? You don’t gotta advertise on Route 66. Just stick something out front there!” he said, gesturing to the road. “They’ll come.”
After a family from Barcelona, Spain, arrived, the husband danced next to Jake and Elwood Blues Brothers statues while his daughter snapped photos. “There’s more stuff out there.You can touch, open doors, ring bells, smash buttons,” Childs encouraged.
There’s plenty to see: a Shoney Big Boy, original gas pumps, a 1951 Ford police car and 1959 Thunderbird, skeleton in a pick-up truck (joking, Childs tells visitors, “…that’s my ex-wife there. I dug her up. She wanted to go for a ride and I didn’t know she meant in the car”), totem poles, car hoods and grills for each of the eight Route 66 states and some for foreign nations, Elvis playing a guitar and much more.
Childs admits, “I wasn’t planning on getting this big when we started to do it. We were just going to have a little garage right there with my cars in it.” But he has too much energy to sit still. “VA doctors tell me I’m a 75-year-old in a 50-year-old body,” he said.
Childs and his partner, Jeanette, built most of the museum themselves. “We poured all this concrete by hand (concrete floor)…And she painted it all.” He constructed the metal overhang and porch, used a blow torch to cut and weld truck parts, and handled the carpentry.
The museum is Childs’ therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from a harrowing tour in Vietnam. He deployed as a U.S. Marine infantryman – 0311, grunt – with Echo Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marines (2/5), 1st Marine Division from January – July 1968. His total time in service was August 1967-August 1969.
Childs said he arrived “right in the middle of…Tet Offensive…and I was in Phu Bai (Airfield) and then Hue City, and then we was up in the Bach Ma Mountains overlooking Khe Sanh…They was bombing, bombing everything… Well, probably in four days we lost 28 people and I was in a 10-man squad (during Khe Sahn battle). “My friend Joe Jordon was killed in action April 3rd 1968,” after being killed by a sniper.
During another battle, Childs recalled, “Two had died, I mean, the point man and the second man died. I was the fourth man back (in the platoon). And they set off one…a booby trap in the road or something. Well, this was in the jungle.”
Childs received two surface wounds but did not get a Purple Heart medal. (Author’s note: 2/5’s missions included search-and-destroy patrols, ambushes, and security for key routes, bridges and villages. The Khe Sanh battle occurred January to July 1968).
Malaria struck in July 1968, sending him to Japan for three months. He recovered in Okinawa. A doctor gave him a S3 profile and ‘no duty in a tropical zone.’ The illness came back three times.
After discharge in 1969, Childs battled PTSD and checked into two VA Centers. Doctors removed his prostate because of cancer. “I got a hundred percent for it (cancer), but I already had a hundred percent for Agent Orange and I think I had 70% for combat duty. I probably got 300% altogether, but you ain’t gonna get but a hundred percent no matter what,” he joked.
Childs drove heavy construction equipment and became a working superintendent for his brother. “I was in Kansas City for 45 years working in construction and then I retired and that’s when I decided wanted me a museum.”
Glen and Misty Posey from Decatur, Alabama, visit. Glen said, “we started off heading west for California. Got to Flagstaff, she got sick. So, we’re riding it backwards all the way back to Chicago.” They were celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary.
The name “CrosStar” comes from his Vietnam memories, where he often saw buildings marked with red stars and crosses. His favorite piece at the museum is a blue painted tree stump with a star cut out and a red cross on top.
Austin Hanes, manager of the “Nowhere on Route 66” restaurant in town, said, “It’s good for business. I like sending people that way and it’s a neat piece of ‘66.”’ Linda Tipton, a home town resident, agreed. “I believe when they stop there…it brings business (here). I think it’s a good thing for our town.”
Rhys Martin, President of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association, added that, “It takes a passionate person with a dream to make these (Route 66) attractions a reality…anyone that stops to look around and talks to Al gets an experience they will never forget.”
The museum is at 103 S. Central Ave (Route 66), is open every day and during the summer, “open until we close.” • story by Lt Col Richard Stephens, Jr., USAFR, Ret.
