The little girl asked her grandmother what it was like when she was little.
The grandmother began to speak very softly and slowly while her grandchildren all
hover around her. This is what she said.
"Once upon a time when I was just a young girl my Daddy made me a
beautiful kite. We used to have such great fun putting them up in the air.
All my friends had a kite some more ornamental than others and often the boys
had a box kite. When we put them up in the sky they only seemed to compliment
one another and it didn't mind which one belong to whom.
On the warm summer days they flew up in the sky with the soft breeze,
we held on tight to the strings so that they wouldn't blow away.
Time has a way of changing our likes and dislikes, but it seems when the cold
wind blew and the rain plummeted down we found that our kites would
be safer tucked away in the closet or attic.
Then the seasons rolled around and when it was warm again we somehow
forgot the beautiful kite and it just gathered dust from year to year.
The hot air balloon filled with helium that went up in the sky all on its own
then replaced it. We didn't have to run and send it aloft like we did our kites,
but all to often the balloon was drifting away and was lost forever.
That is when we purchased another and had fun for a while.
Lo and behold the kite and the balloon slipped out of our memory because
we soon had gadgets called cell phones with the ability to talk to real people.
And then the computer became the object of our fascination.
Now it is a time for you children have IPODS, game boys, Wii's, Nintendo’s
and I don't know what else.
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I hate to think of how much has been glossed over and would love to put an
old fashioned kite in the air -------------. The children began to squeal with delight
"Oh Yes Grandma will you help us build a kite"
With this they began to do some research and soon found a package called "making a kite".
After calling in some neighbor kids and even a grown up or two they began to
build a kite
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When they were finished , they were surprised to see that so many of them had
participated in the building of one kite that they now had a whole fleet of them.
Since it was nearly St. Patrick's Day they had kites for that special occasion.
Shamrocks of every kind with green tails.
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They all gathered up their kites and headed for the vacant lot to see if they would fly.
And fly they did. For the whole afternoon they had a grand time like the days of
old when they got together as a community to have a good time.
Moral of this story is that things are never truly forgotten but live on in someone's
memory NEWEST IS NOT ALWAYS BEST. Kites, paper dolls, models airplanes
and trucks all these things live on and are never truly replaced by the mechanical toys.
However the most important things of these times were the love and friendship of the
entire neighborhood that got together to make and fly their kites because one small girl
asked her grandmother about the "olden days".
© Carol G Oliver
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"TOO OFTEN WE UNDER ESTIMATE THE POWER
OF A TOUCH, A SMILE, A KIND WORD, A LISTENING
EAR, AN HONEST COMPLIMENT, OR THE SMALLEST
ACT OF CARING, ALL OF WHICH HAVE THE POTENTIAL
TO TURN A LIFE AROUND."........LEO BUSCAGLIA
(1925 - 1998)
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Midi: "Fly Me to the Moon" by DON CARROLL SEQUENCES
Main Image Site
Graphic Set by Designer Lady
Especially for Cali's Haven
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