Grandma Mistakenly Wore ‘Panama Flag’ On July 4 For Over 25 Years

A grandmother from Houston, Texas, realized she had been mistakenly wearing the Panama flag on July 4, every year for over 25 years now, assuming she was donning the American red, white and blue.

Shirley Cheesman, 88, realized her traditional July 4 attire for the last 25 years was actually the flag of the Central American Country, Panama, south of her native Texas, when her grandson Dale Cheesman, 29, was watching the FIFA World Cup happening right now in Russia.

According to BuzzFeed News, when Dale and his sister’s fiancé were checking the schedule of the popular tournament, they realized "Nana's July 4th shirt," looked surprisingly like the flag of Panama pictured.

"I grew up thinking, 'Oh that's just Nana's July 4th shirt,' so it never seemed out of place to me," the grandson said, BuzzFeed News reported.

While the Panama flag does have stars and the red, white and blue, it is distinctive in that it has four squares featuring a blue star on a white square on the top left and a red square on the top right, a blue square on the bottom left and red star over a white background at the bottom right.

Dale shared the realization on Twitter, where he, in jest, referred to the mix up as “Over 25 years of treason.”

“My grandma has worn the same shirt with red, white, blue, and stars to celebrate the 4th of July for more than 25 years,” he wrote. “Thanks to the #WorldCup we finally noticed it's the Panama Flag.”

His tweet was retweeted over 12,000 times at the time of publishing as Panamanians invited the family to visit.

"We were on a family trip celebrating the 4 July weekend early because it's on a Wednesday this year,” Dale told the BBC. “We showed my grandma at dinner.”

His grandma will continue wearing the shirt, Dale said. "It's tradition."

"If anything I might buy the whole family Panama shirts to wear on 4 July."

According to ABC affiliated KSAT12, Shirley laughed when informed of the error.

This was the first time Panama qualified for the World Cup and, ironically, they did so at the cost of the United States team with a goal considered controversial.

For the first time since 1986, the U.S. men’s national football team failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup. It all went wrong when in their last qualifier in October 2017, only a draw with Trinidad and Tobago would have sufficed to see them in it.

They could not manage this as their Caribbean opponents beat them that night 2-1. They were still in with a chance so long as both Panama and Honduras lost. However, Panama, who were facing Costa Rica, ended up beating them 2-1.

At half time the scoreline read 1-0, with Panama down, but, controversy ensued early in the second half as the ball, coming from a corner came off the back side of Panamanian player Gabriel Torres and hit the inside of the post, Nine.co.au reported.

Then team mate Blas Perez, on having his shirt pulled, fell, and the ball bouncing off his shoulder trickled onto the goal line. Perez tried to get it to cross line, but it was soon kicked away by Costa Rican defender Ronald Matarrita. Replays indicated the ball did not cross the line.