WHERE ARE ALL THE KITES/

WHERE HAVE ALL THE KITES GONE?

Have you noticed that flying a kite these days is pretty much non-existence?  I guess it’s just another bit of my history that has been laid to the memories of my mind.  Much like, Lincoln logs, transistor radios or the erector sets.

I remember growing up in Colorado Springs, and the windy days in March and April, my sister and brother would hop on our bikes, and head to Duckwalls and buy kites!  You’d get the kite, ball of kite string, all for about 25 cents.  Get home and CAREFULLY put the kite together, hoping you didn’t break the stick frame of the kite, bend it too much and SNAP!  Then placing the paper of the kite onto the frame, again being very careful.  Finally you’d have your kite almost ready to go, but you needed a tail!  That’s where Mom would come to rescue, tearing up an old sheet to make your tail!  Attach the ball of kite string and we were ready to take the kite for a flight.

On good days, it only took about 5 tries to get that baby up into the wind, watching it head up into the heavens…but you know it could go higher, so you add another ball of kite string.  Now as the kite goes higher and higher, you start to look for a stick to wrap your string around. Dare you add another ball of string to the kite?  Then you remind yourself, wait I’ve got to reel this all back in! 

Of course there were the days that your kite would end up in the tree, or worse yet tangled up with the power lines, or even worse yet tangled up with your friends kite!  I miss seeing kites. Oh sure you can see them on the beaches, but even now not as many. I googled Kite festivals near me, and I was surprised that there is a Kite Festival that has been help in Meridian the past few years. Their Facebook page talks about they are hoping to have a festival this year, but so far no date has been mentioned.

I hope they do have one, I really want to see all the different shapes and styles and colors in the blue skies of Idaho!