Kitey Hawk
by Bernie Paquette
Mixed messages. One day, the sun races through the windows while frost caps the grass in vanilla ice cream scoops; the next day is dreary and dull yet warm enough for bluebirds to sing a well-seasoned song.
Today the sun shines bright behind the clumps of marshmallow clouds.
No matter. Though the bright rays remain clothed and opaque.
Temperature abides physics, warming the air and grass far below.
Fall professes a measure of leftover summer mixed with winter emblazoned on Mount Mansfield. Blustery winds from the southeast form a brashness belied by rising warm updrafts.
A perfect storm for kites and kids of all ages.
K-12 Kindergarten through High School and A -12. Adults with mirrored images of their own-self at age 12. Skip school, skip work, skip all the way to the field forming a frolic life - at least for a day.
String. A thin white cotton cord, coated with leftover melted wax spun around a saltwater fishing spool, shivering with delight at the thought of flight.
No more so than the master of the skies, the single-winged warrior of wind, the paper bird of the sky, carrying Superman’s image, aching to be up in the sky - Look it's a bird, no a plane, no it's Gavin's Superman kite.
A proud master of kite flying. Gavin is a connoisseur of wind sheer, mountain thermals, dark area thermals, water thermals, and cumulus clouds*. Sprinter in bursts, tactful handler, eagle-eyed, and light enough to be carried upwards like a young bird hopping up briefly suspended in the air preparing for full-fledged flight.
Gavin is also a kite maker extraordinaire. String relaxes its hold as mothers release their young ones - with reluctant abandon and reserve tension. While fathers
endorse, promote, and postulate the joy of unlimited racing at speed and rising to towering heights. The tails are a father’s rudder - their control - the only measure of restriction. Tails custom built with tradesman skill and attention, knowing the wind and all its personalities - volatile, capricious, erratic. The cartoon on his kite sets illusions of a hero from far away.
Sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills** retain no more import than Sally’s treeless lot. 1903 (Wright) Flyer - no more delicate and airworthy than Gavin's courageous kite. Room to run and fly unobstructed, wind, and a dream, brought Gavin to a Jericho grassy sheep field where, after a summer of scientific experimentation, he achieved the first successful Superman flight on September 7, 2015.
The first attempts had brought broken string, displaced tail, and torn wing. Ambitious energy on short legs, tape, thread, and knots secured repeated attempts at flight. Fitful attempts sprinted and sputtered; Gavin doing his part racing, the wind only half-heartedly so. Finally, a sprint nearly the field length mocked the wind into competitive bursts. Surges of updraft pulled Heavenly upward, taking the kite nearly out of Gavin’s hands. The saltwater reel spun madly as though he had hooked a giant marlin. He held fast with both feet postured securely, eyes to the sky, heart swelling in pride and joy, adrenalin surging. Parts of him had left the earth - thermal updrafts threatened to take the rest of him up and through the clouds. The opaque star awaited him.
When the wind baited him with a sly showing of calm, Gavin reeled in keeping tension taut. Dropping the pretense of defeat, the wind doubled down causing the line to vibrate and sing the cry of an untuned violin. The kite tail slapped about like big white sheets pinned to a line in a farm yard. The kite’s chest blossomed as firm as Superman’s symbol S for hope, expanded, and bellowed out in an outstretched boast of overbold daring. The sky was no longer the limit.
Nearing the end of the line on the spool, Gavin raced toward the now seemingly independent kite like a mother bolting toward a child about to cross the street for the first time.
While frantically running to retrieve or join his inflight kite, Gavin recalled the many hours of attention the kite had demanded, the creativity, artistic flare, and technical design entrusted in its creation. He built the kite to fly, and he taught the kite to fly. Now he wished to restrain, to retain, his loved one. At least keep it on a somewhat shorter string. The last sighting was of Gavin’s sneakers skimming the top of Sally’s rooftop as he held the kite’s string in one hand, the tail in another.
The joy of kiting, apparently, is in building the most aerodynamic kite, tethering it with a tail for control, and allowing just enough string to reach heaven’s doors but not enough for it to go inside.
For best results, one should ask for warm blustery winds. Just be sure the kite understands the term “roundtrip”.
Kitey Hawk was written in honor of my grandson Gavin, and my friend and neighbor Sally. - Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do Good, Bernie
*Mountain thermals - These form in the afternoon when the sun unevenly warms a mountainside.
Dark area thermals - These form in dark areas, like parking lots and fields, that absorb the sun's energy and heat the air above them.
Water thermals - These form when moving bodies of water, like rivers, creeks, and streams, pull air downward because they are cooler than the air temperature.
Cumulus clouds - These form when a column of air rises and cools at higher altitudes, causing the moisture in the air to condense.
**The first airplane flight took place on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills.
