Country Roads

Since Kansas and Nebraska officially consider the “windy month” a month away, it’s time to get your kites ready to fly. Recently I attended a kite flying festival. It was amazing to see all shapes and sizes of kites flying high into the blue sky. There were kites flown just for display. They included kites shaped like octopus and fish of all kinds and in all colors. There were kites of patriotic design moving in a circular motion. There were giant kites and kites that were smaller.

There were kite competitions and demonstrations, in singles and in teams. Those were amazing. The spectators didn’t know whether to keep their eyes on the kites or the human managers of the kite strings. The teams consisted of four or five people who flew their bird-like kites in tandem motion to music. They would fly their colorful kites in circles, one kite leading the others. Then the kites would swoop down with each person putting the kites on their piped legs onto the ground, all in a line. With a quick tug of their lines, the kites would go back up into the air and into another pattern of motion sometimes touching each other in a dance. The kites would go high into the air. Then with a sudden tug of the line, the kites would sink and go into another dancing pattern. When the music stopped, the kites would be brought down to bow. A memorable single kite flier was somehow able to fly and maintain three kites at the same time, flying in motion to the music. One can only imagine how many days of practicewere needed to get all the moves just right, and not get the lines tangled together.

The competitors came from all over the U.S. and even from other countries. One of the single competitors came from Argentina and though he competed in the singles, he added his kite to one of the teams. They flew in what was called a “jam session” just for the fun of it. The audience was held spell bound.

My mind went back to the years when the kites I was familiar with were so simple. I guess my parents weren’t kite fliers as I didn’t grow up flying those simple kites. It wasn’t until my sons were young that my husband encouraged kite flying. The boys often made their own kites, cutting up paper grocery sacks and taping the paper to dowel sticks. String was tied to the homemade kites, with material tied on a string to make a floating tail. Taken out into the pasture, onto a hill, the boys would run trying to get their kites to lift up into an air current. Some maiden flights were successful and others were not. Sometimes as Easter gifts they would receive purchased kites. Those plastic kites would be enjoyed until they couldn’t fly anymore. On trips to the lake to camp, my husband would take kites along for entertainment. Fellow campers also enjoyed the colorful sights of their kites. After our boys grew up, my husband enjoyed purchasing and flying larger kites.

From the earliest days, kites were consisted a great invention. The “Great Kite” was a wooden machine designed by Leonardo da Vinci. The term kite came from a group of birds that are in the Hawk family. Another famous kite flier was Benjamin Franklin. In 1752, by flying a kite in a thunder storm, he collected an electrical charge to demonstrate the connection between lightening and electricity.

In more recent times, kites are flown for a hobby and entertainment. It still is a challenge, as it always has been, between man and the air power to send the man-made kites soaring into the air.

There is a song that comes to mind which was sung in a popular Disney movie, Mary Poppins. The lyrics in the chorus go, “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!”