We would go up to the schoolyard to fly them because they’d often get stuck in trees or power lines if we flew them on our city street.

saved to use when painting walls, but what I learned was to always wear my winter gloves to protect my hands from that string the wind would roll out really fast enough to give the palms string burn abrasions. Ouch! No worries about trees and power lines - We'd go to the 4-seasons of fun Little League fields cleared from the acres of "woods" behind the house; always exciting. Spring - kite flying, late spring and summer - baseball; medical emergencies that brought the squad, and hunting critters (crayfish, tadpoles, frogs, etc) in the ditches near the train rails - fall - colored leaf collections we'd press in wax paper at home. winter - walking behind the taller-than-we-were snow drifts that would form against the outfield fence and rolling huge snowmen and icy "igloos." of snow blocks.

Last edited Sat Apr 13, 2024, 05:08 PM - Edit history (1)

What do you do with it?

In fact I got a bunch of dirty ones waiting to be washed.

That is what we did at home when I was a kid.
Old cloth rags were used for a lot of things.

Back then we recycled a lot of things without even thinking about it.
Rubber bands, boxes, paper, etc.

When we were kids, it was the drawer right by the back door in the kitchen - broke a couple windows in the door when someone didn't close that old junk drawer.

When we were kids, it was the drawer right by the back door in the kitchen - broke a couple windows in the door when someone didn't close that old junk drawer.

The park slopes upwards & is a great place to catch the wind as it comes off the Rockies. The kites aren't the old time ones like we used to fly, though!

I was surprised because I hadn’t seen kite flyers in a while.

rip an old piece of cloth for a tail.

I remember kite days better than most others.

They would go aloft really easily and stay airborne for long periods of time.

We were US Air Force military kids stationed on an island in the South China Sea,
the military housing was located on a cliff next to the ocean.
The wind air lift was phenomenal.

Our housing was fairly close to the flight line where the military planes were taking off and landing.
It was during the Viet Nam war and there was a lot of flight traffic all day long.

The base commander shut down our kite making hobby when the pilots complained
about our kites hitting their airplanes.

My grandparents came to visit twice a year, March and October, the windy months in SoCal in the olden days.. There was a school yard right next door, lots of running room. Also lived on a cul de sac so it was safe to fly while riding my bike. Those were the good old days, and I think I knew at the time. Thanks for the memories brush

Occasionally I'd get one aloft for a few moments. But, unlike Charlie Brown, I didn't have a kite eating tree to contend with. It was the kite killing pavement.

At twice the price we were compelled to pass on them. The few I did see flying just sat up there, majestically motionless.

We'd launch them from the roof of our house. At one point we even had a big speaker out there and would broadcast strange static and interference sounds to give the impression of a UFO.

Loved the weird bloodshot-eye stickers you could place as you saw fit. You can still get them! Bought one for nostalgia's sake a couple of years ago; astonished at how much smaller they seem now.

Near the Marina. Usually windy. Sometimes to much.

because everything they used to do has been stripped from public parks along with the benches their parents sat on while they played on swings and slides, played baseball, flew kites. Public parks have been turned over to the alcoholics and drug dealers.

Don't blame the kids for being obsessed with electronic stuff. It's not like they have many alternatives these days.

Going to the Outer Banks with a kite. The beaches there are great for kite flying. My kids loved it when they were little. The only hard part about it was if you let the string out all the way, it could take an hour to reel it back in.

Up on the grassy area near Geneva-on-the-Lake boat marina on Lake Erie. Mr. D fashioned a way to reel the kite back in using a cordless electric drill.

I never thought about that but what a great idea!!!

And, I, too , love the Outer Banks! Been there twice, but not for many years.

Used lots of string. The comment about the need for gloves was right on.

In later years I had one those bat shaped kites which you could control directions on. Great for dive bombing.

I wonder if the horrendous winds we have been having due the crazy, climate change driven winds is a discouraging factor.

One weekend we were out there and a couple of young guys came up and commented on how much fun they saw us having. Then they disappeared. About a half-hour later, here they come again, and they'd bought kites to try out, for themselves! For awhile, there we were, all four of us, lying on our backs, flying our kites and laughing out loud. Don't know who they were and we never saw them again, but that sure was a fun day!

some pretty good luck. It was a nice breezy day.

My friends and I had colorful kites on our dorm walls and we'd take them, and a bottle of wine, out a few times in the spring. I loved to fly kites with my dad as a child but I didn't have kids of my own to share it with.

There are several kite flying events near me, I should check them out.

Had the album and lunchbox.

I remember going down to Atlantic City years and years ago and we would fly kites there. The ocean breeze made it a perfect place to do it much of the year.

One instructor always assigned his students the project of making a kite, then the class would go outside and fly them. Your kite had to be attractive and functional. Too bad I never had a chance to take that class. I think it was called 3-D Design.

They weren't maneuverable though. You could make the triangular kites dip and dive, but box kites just kind of stayed in one place. At least that was my experience with them.

I was a triangular kite kid all the way! 😉

You'll see them on every beach.

Dad would cut sticks for me on the tablesaw and i would build them from a book i had. I liked to scale them up 1.5.
They were always a beast to get back in on a windy day.

A big sucker, 7 feet wide. It came with everything. Kite string, spool, and even the tail.

The grandchildren looked at me like I had another leg growing out of my forehead, but guess who was begging me to "let me try, grandpa," within 5 minutes of putting it together and getting it flying? 😉

I knew it would happen all along. I never got another turn all afternoon. 😁

it was still very light. It wasn't hard to get in the air at all.

Let's go fly a kite!

truly works of art. I often thought about buying some of the prettiest, and simply hanging them on my walls. Never did, though.

However, in memory of that beautiful shop, I went looking online, and found several that look intriguing. The first one I checked on, Kite Hill (in NC), has lovely dragon kites for this Year of the Dragon.

Happy flying, to you who do!

My mom enjoyed flying kites and she got us doing it.

Can't talk my idiot into it.

We'd get a paper kite and a roll of string at one of the neighborhood groceries for 25 cents. Kite ties were made of rags, stashed in a utility cabinet in the cellar with the paint cans.

It was great fun and magic, on a warmish, breezy spring afternoon. Till the sun started to set and we all went home for supper.

We lost kites, by a brisk wind that snapped the kite string and it soared higher and higher till it disappeared. Sadly, sometimes they got snagged on tree branches or telephone wires and were torn to shreds. We learned to fly them in more open areas or fields. It was always an adventure.

Some kids with a parent with a kite today!

I think it would be lots of fun.

four of five years old.

Later, when I was about 10 or so, I built my own tetrahedral kite and flew it. I rigged my GI Joe with a parachute that would take him up the kite line and release him when he got to the top.

Alexander Graham Bell was a serious kite enthusiast.

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/alexander-graham-bell-s-tetrahedral-kites-1903-9/