Friday, April 23, 2004
Kite Memories
John reminded me of the kite my Gran and Grandad bought for me on a trip to England
Thanks for the memories John
I started with constructed kites that my Dad helped me build. I rremember the first he built for me. It was painted red
I remember the struggle to make it fly. Then when I was 8 my grandparents returned from a trip to England with a Barnstormer - a stunt kite.
this was a light 2 stringed affair with a 60ft tail made of plastic
I loved this kite and living in a river valley with a steady breeze made it the ideal thing
I used to tie my sisters plain kite to the fence and then fly my kite at it attempting to crash it
Or I would lie on my back in the paddock across the road with the kite floating laziliy 120 feet above me on full string length
Or do power dives at my little brother on the ground pulling out in the last few metres as he tried to catch the tail
Sometimes I would do loop the loops over and over again counting the rotations so I could reverse them to untangle the string. Figure of eights and sideways flying were also fun
Of course tangles are part of flying a kite and many hours of untangling string in the paddock occurred - but the effort of untangling tightly knotted nylon string was always rewarded by the kite soaring effortlessly on the wind.
