Flashback Friday #84

Go Fly A Kite

Hello all. Welcome to another episode of Flashback Friday. Today we will fly back several years to a time in my life that would have made Charlie Brown exclaim "Good Grief".

We had a hay field behind our house. This is where we tossed our "solids" when we cleaned out our outhouse. There were no trees around so it made the perfect place to fly a kite.

I saved up my hard earned cash to purchase a kite. It was the coolest kite ever. It was white and had a scene from "Star Trek" on it. "The Enterprise" was in the forefront in blue with a Klingon battle cruiser in red in the background. Surely a kite like that would fly good.

I got that kite put together and headed out to the field. A good gust of wind came up and the kite went skyward. Woo hoo. I was ready to spend some quality time flying a kite.

Then tragedy struck. Suddenly the kite plummeted earthward like a rock. It crashed with a sickening thud. I ran over to it and checked it for damage. I was sickened to see that both sticks were broken. I then realized the error of my way. I had put no tail on my kite.

I carried the carnage inside. When Dad saw what had happened. He loaded me in the car and we headed into town to buy another one. They had one identical to the one that had bit the dust. "The Enterprise" would indeed orbit the hayfield.

After the kite was assembled with a tail, I headed back out to the field. Up went the kite. Higher & higher. It was so cool. Higher & higher. I had NEVER had a kite up that high before. It was so high, I was almost out of string.

Then a large gust of wind came up, and jerked the string out of my hand. The kite was loose, and running away from me. I took off like a streak. I had to catch that string. I got tantalizing close several times. It was like chasing a dog that didn't want to be caught.

I started to panic. The kite was headed to the creek. At the creek was a tree line. Kites & trees done get along well. The string stopped for a moment and I ran as fast as I could. I then promptly landed in a groundhog hole and spilled head over heels. When I got up, the string was gone, but the kite was still flying high.

I made it back to the tree line to try to find the string. Believe it or not, I found it. It was caught in a tree. A thorn tree. The thorns on this tree were huge. Pygmies could have used them for spears. There was no way that I could climb that tree to retrieve my kite.

The winds kept that kite aloft for two days.

Did you ever have any success flying a kite?