The long and the short of it ...

[TARNATION !!!]

On a "calm" day, the flags never droop. Most days, they snap like a locker room towel. This was a good blow.
Cheers,
Jack

[Dean Romig]

OUCH!!! I remember those locker room "Rat tails" and the red welts they left on bare flesh!!

I've definitely heard the popping flags and tent flaps but most vivid of all are the flapping, popping sound of the hood of my parka while waiting on the Salisbury Flats in a January snow squall for ducks and geese to come screamin' in over the slough I was stationed on. The wind and icy snow caused my parka to sound like the frenzied wingbeats of a Loon on its long and lumbering take-off.