Flying Kites and the Man on the Moon

This is a real test of how old you are (or aren’t) in many ways.  Remember when kids used to fly kites?   They were such simple kites back then.  You bought those diamond shaped kites for a dime at the neighborhood variety store (that was Pala Dime and Dollar where I lived), tied a rag to the bottom string for stability, got out your wad of twine, went to the play field at the nearby grade school and hoped for wind.

My favorite kites were the Man in the Moon kite and the Jolly Roger kite  (the Man in the Moon was my number one favorite.   It was boss).  If a big gust of wind came while the kite was in the sky, sometimes the paper would shread and you’d have to reel it in quickly.   Tape it up.  Launch it again. Or, if the string broke while in mid-air, you’d see your kite soar far away over roof tops and street lights.  You’d then jump or your bike racing through the labyrinth of roads in your part of town trying to find the downed kite before another kid could snatch it up.  And you were constantly told to never try to recover a kite if the string was draped over a power line because you’d die (although, come to think of it, I never heard of any kid dying from retrieving a runaway kite …. Even if the string was hanging from a power line … nonetheless kids, don’t try it).

Anyway, I think of kite flying today because of the Man in the Moon kite and remembering how crazy it seemed to an eight year old boy that there would be a man in the moon (The moon had cheese on it, right?  Not men).  And it was all brought to the forefront this morning when I read that today is the 45^th anniversary of a man actually landing and walking on the moon.  If you were alive back then and probably older than five, you likely remember it.

It was a Sunday afternoon on the West Coast, we all gathered around the one TV set we had in the living room about 1:00PM, and watched the historic landing and first steps on the moon.  The ludicrous idea of that man in the moon from my kite flying days had become reality.  

People nowadays say they were such innocent times back then.   It was an era of pride and triumph, unlike today.  I’m not so sure that is true.  Yes, today we have jetliners being blown out of the sky, wars are being fought and people are killing each other over religious ideals, civilians with fire power unimaginable in 1969 are entering schools and theaters and office buildings randomly murdering dozens of innocent people weekly.  Other than religious wars, those types of things weren’t happening in ’69.  But there were race riots, there were assassinations, and there were crimes just as hideous (though perhaps not as well publicized as they are today) all taking place in the 1960s.

 

As for innovation, getting a man on the moon was a monumental feat, especially for that era.  But look at the advances that we have today (back then I can remember having to call an “Operator” to make a long distance call between San Jose and Stockton and then paying 50 cents a minute once it was connected … remember your parents calling “Hurry up, it’s your grandparents calling, long distance! Talk fast!”).

Nonetheless, as a teenage kid, it was a fun time.  So, for this day, put aside the shooting down of jetliners, the world wide tensions, the killings and the wars, and the unanswered voice mails (imagine the concept of voice mail in 1969).  And take ten minutes to slip back 45 years today to a much simpler time … when TVs were still largely black and white, you dialed a phone with a dial, not push buttons, and “Let It Be” was number one on the record charts.  And on that Sunday afternoon, Neil Armstrong took one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.  Click HERE to relive the moment.