I've loved flying kites since I was a young boy in the mid 1960's. It was a communal experience on my street. If a kid was lucky enough to have received a kite after a trip to the grocery store with their mom, he usually was seen walking with it to the nearest ball diamond or cornfield.
I was one of those kids on a summer day, and a few of the older boys decided that they would help me guarantee my kite would set altitude records that afternoon. It wasn't good enough to use only one spool of string, my fellow aviators decided we would commingle several different spools of string together. That way, my kite would surely enter the airspace of a passing airliner or fighter jet on maneuvers from the nearby Air National Guard!!!
After tying multiple spools of string, we took my new kite to the nearest corn field and began its countdown into history. The kite was made of clear plastic with the outline of a blue airplane on it. It took off like a rocket and soon, it was several thousand feet above our heads. All we could see was the blue jet image high in the clouds. We kept letting out more and more string and the lone kite ascended higher and higher!!! Before long, we could barely make out the tiny blue spec in the sky!!! Then it happened!!!
After we had let out all our string, the kite broke free and began flying on its own!!! We followed the small dot in the sky across several cornfields and through the woods. Our shoes were completely covered in early Springtime mud and we knew we were gonna catch hell when we got home to our mothers.
We never found that kite. Some say it eventually came down in a farmers field somewhere in deep inside the state of Indiana or even beyond. We never could confirm that.
Many years later, I took my two oldest kids to a field behind our house and decided we would try and make kite flying history again. I had a few hours to burn before I had to go into work and it was a beautiful windy April morning. Perfect for a kite launch. Just in case, I decided to video tape the mission for the archives.
Things got off to a pretty good start with my daughter, Dara who was about 9, and she controlling the first flight. There were a few tragic crashes, but she did get some lengthy air time after a while. Next up was my son, Dylan. He was about 6 1/12, and was pretty excited about flying his first kite. He couldn't wait to get it up in the air.
Unfortunately, there were several failed attempts and Dylan was beginning to lose his patience, when all of a sudden…. a big gust of wind rescued the diving nose of our airship and sent it high in the morning sky.
Everything was being recorded, and what happened next, made us laugh for years when we'd watch the video of our kite adventure. Dylan was slowly letting the string out, and over time, the spool began to get away from him. His confidence giving way to panic!!! " Dad....the string!!!!! Dad the string....it's ........AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! and with that scream, we could see that the string was completely off the spool and our kite was totally unmanned!!!! We all began running after the unmanned kite like three peacocks with our heads cut off...but we couldn’t help from laughing!!!!!
We eventually got it down and re tied the string back on the spool for our next fight. Dylan was ready!!!! Unfortunately, unknown it him, his shoe was resting the the tail of the kite!!!! So when he tossed the kite into the air, he ripped the tail off the kite beyond repair!!!! Dara was video taping and narrating at the same time. " Well, ladies and gentlemen, Dylan has just ripped the tail off the kite, so there will be no more kite flying today!!!
We really didn't care. We had shared a fun hour and it was forever preserved on video tape to watch over and over!!!! I often think about our Kitty Hawk morning when I look out over into the field behind our house. There are too many trees back there now to fly a kite, but the memory lives on.
Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height.
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring.
Up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear.
Oh let's go, fly a kite!
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