memories of my youth #2

Kites - March is always the best time for kites - I remember the kites of my youth well. One of my earliest coherent memories is of a neighborhood kite and rubber band airplane extravaganza. I was probably about 4 or 5 and my mother said this only happened once so she doesn't know why I remember it but it was an awesome day. The neighborhood was 1 block from Central and baseline at the foot of the South Mountains in Phoenix. (This area was the boonies at that time mostly orchards and commercial flower gardens.) Our street was only one block long. It was a beautiful spring weekend and everybody had their kites out. A whole Armada of colors flew in the sky. I had a wind up balsa Airplane (I still love that thing) we all ran up and down the streets working hard to get the kites to fly in Phoenix's airless sky. It was a cotton Candy sort of day. The type usually found only in movies, the ones you can't imagine having in real life that make you look back upon your childhood as if it were a dream and wishing you could escape back there. As I grew older I learned how to make my own kites, Treasures made from old newspapers dowels rods, and some torn up sheets tied together for a tail. The longer the tail the better it flew. I can still remember other visions of kite flying only by the kites, I have no idea where I was flying them just the kites.

Mishaps - When I was 9 my Stepfather bought this huge Box kite kit and after building it he took all of us out to a field and we let it fly, It was high in the air when he asked me if I want to take over. Being a kid who wanted more than anything to fly the kite I took it, unfortunately the kite was only a wee bit smaller than I was and had the wind in its wake I let go. It flew higher and father that I thought possible. Took over an hour to find it but find it we did. I don't really remember how I acted that day probably my usual smart mouth self but that brash young exterior hid a child who was very truly sorry for letting go and was infinitely happy when the kite was found. The hunt became an adventure in its own right.

There is a farm in Oklahoma that wore the tattered remnants of a Huge shark in a tree that the children let capture it.
I have had dragons large and small, trick kites short and wide but the kites of my childhood held together by elmers glue and bits of wood and string are by far still my favorites.

To this day kites can pull me back into my childhood mind, that happy carefree place where birds talk to me from their branches, meadows are magical and I will never grow up.