Do you remember when Spring meant kite flying? I would buy those cheapo ones?

Question

that tore very easily if you were not careful. I loved flying kites.

Answer 1

We made our own with heavy Christmas paper (it was real heavy), and used an old sock for a tail, and hooked up the string, and away we went.

Answer 2

When I was young I always built my own kites.

I used old broken fibreglass fishing poles as the cross bars (well bound at the middle with twine), and would use a heavy twine to connect the points (N, E, S, W). And then lay the skeletal crosspieces on top of some light fabric (nylon was best), cut the material one inch larger than the area outlined by the twine, and then sew the material onto the crosspieces. (It helped that my mother was a dressmaker, and always had extra material hanging around.) Add a tail made out of pieces of paper tied around with twine to make it look somewhat like a bow tie.

Then I would take 60 lb test fishing line and attach it at the centre of the cross. When I first started making the kites, I used a stick as the line feeder, but by the time I was 10, I was using an old open fishing reel set on just a handle of a rod. It was no surprise that a fishing reel made a very good kite reel.

When my oldest nephew came to visit from B.C. the year I was 17 (and he was 8) I told him how much fun I had building kites and flying them at his age. He bugged me until we built one for him. We spent the summer flying that kite, and others we experimented with. I built my very first box kite with him, and found out that it had too much lift for the two of us to handle...we were both becoming airborne trying to keep the kite from flying away, and but for the timely intervention of one of the fullbacks from the football team, would have either lost the kite or been dragged away and hurt by it. (My nephew was flying it and was yanked off the ground like he wasn't even there. By the time I grabbed the reel, he was already 10 feet off the ground. I wound the line around both of my forearms trying to keep him from flying away, but the kite was lifting me as well. And then this 260 lb giant came running and first wrestled me back down to the ground, and reeled in my nephew and then the kite. We dismembered it that evening.)

Answer 3

I love flying kites too with the grand kids.
A few years ago I bought them an expensive one shaped like a box. We had a blast for hours but there was no where to store it. Their mom wouldn't let them bring it home so it stayed in the basement until the season was over and had to throw it away.
I don't remember ever making home made ones.
That would be fun.

Answer 4

It's been years since I last flew a kite with my sons. Now, they're married & have children of their own. My three granddaughters aren't interested in flying kites, but the father of my two grandsons, loves flying their kites with his two boys, just like he did when he was their age. I think my son has the most fun, just being a kid again. I'm glad you get to spend that precious time with your granddaughter. What great memories for both of you as the years go by.

Answer 5

Here in Virginia Beach, we have MOUNT TRASHMORE (a park built on a 'land fill'...a PC word for TRASH DUMP) and it's the highest point in the area....60 feet high, over 800 feet long, the park covers 165 acres. When ever the wind is up (we're near the ocean...) folks go fly kites, spring, summer, fall, and EVEN winter...that cold part of the year below 50. One time my wife, youngest son and I went there to fly his kite. It kept falling to the ground out of control. My wife said to me, "You need more tail." I was thinking I wished she'd make up her mind because the night before she told me, "Go fly a kite!" hmmm

Answer 6

When my daughter was in the first grade and it was windy we would always fly a kite till the bus came, often the driver would sit and watch with the other little kids. Now she sails kites with her little boy.

Answer 7

we still do !One of the days in the Easter Holidays I take the grandchildren down the beach,buy a kite, bucket and spade,collect crabs,make sand castles,paddle in the freezing water, have a bag of chips and catch the train back home in time for tea

Answer 8

Our dad always helped us make our own, I don't remember anyone buying a kite, but my memory isn't what it used to be.

Answer 9

I LOVED FLYING KITES TOO BUT USUALLY WHEN THE KITE DECIDED TO PLUMMET THE STRING WAS ACROSS LOTS OF NEIGHBORS YARDS AND ONE TIME THERE WERE THREE NEIGHBORS OUT BACK OF THEIR PLACES HELPING ME WIND UP STRING.

Answer 10

You know, I always was really bad at that but I still love watching them. Especially the odd-shaped ones-- pirate ships, square ones, etc.