Paper Kites

April showers bring May flowers. But then there are March winds.  

After work, I came home to a warm dinner (hot dogs. ha). My husband and I talked some about our day, then we set off for a nice afternoon walk around the neighborhood. The wind was blowing in from the East. Sometimes we swear we can smell the ocean. We close our eyes we hear the waves. 

Its been in the 50's and really windy here in North Carolina for the past few days. Great time to fly a kite. This is something you do not see many kids doing now days. They would rather sit inside and play video games. I'm starting to think that even TV is going to be something in the past for kids. 

I speak of kites because its days like this that make me think about when I was young. My Mom would send me and my siblings out to gather sticks. They needed to be at least 8 inches long and straight. It was like a little treasure hunt as we set out to find the perfect ones.

Once we brought the sticks inside, Mom would use old newspapers and make us a kite to fly in the yard. These kites would really fly and it was so fun. They didn't last long as each one of us would end up with our kite wrapped in a tree in no time. I mean, who sends their kids out to fly a kite in the woods? hahaha just kidding Mom. But no, really, we had lots of trees. We would often beg mom to make just one more, but she wouldn't. She would make us wait another day. When she said, "this is it", she meant it.  I guess kite string wasn't cheap.

 

Its the simple little moments that take me back. Like just a gust of wind, and there I am, thinking of the days we played in the yard, We would chase grass hoppers, and lightning bugs. We would build and climb tree houses. Rolly bat and kick ball was fun. The girls played Jack rocks and jump rope. If you had a big wheel you were cool. If you had a kite, nothing else mattered at the moment and everyone would stop whatever they were doing and watch.

Our kites looked something like this.