I love sundials and have no doubt you could get very creative with them.
For the flag pole holders idea I was picturing the kind that mount to the the house (think smaller home flags). They are usually just brackets. I thought it might be cool to add some of your "metal men" on the bracket doing the "raising the flag on Iwo Jima" pose. I think that would be interesting.... and hopefully not disrespectful
flagpole holders, hmmmmm.