At the premiere of a local documentary on Middle Township, “300 Years in the Middle,” a man walked up to my family and asked: have you heard of kites?
Yeah, I’ve heard of kites. The man said he was once the editor of a nationally published kite hobbyist magazine. “But the world doesn’t care about kites anymore, you know,” he told the three of us.
I assured him that I love kites. He looked at us, sighed, and said with sorrow on his face that the number of kite publications – even online– is dwindling down to zero.
That’s a shame. My grandmother told me that kites, as summer ended and the off-season trudged near, could be found all around Wildwood Crest like litter. “They were in the chimneys, in the trees, they used to get stuck everywhere. They were so popular when I was younger,” she said to me months after our encounter with the world’s #1 kite fan.
Looking up at a kite is like looking down into a canyon. Holding a kite makes my head dizzy and arms tingle because of the scale of my tiny nylon vessel against the infinite sky. But I love kites, love that they’re so inexpensive and easy to DIY, love the way they complement a sunny beach day or a back-bay sunset. And it’s fun to feel a little scared.
One of the biggest kite festivals in America takes place on Memorial Day weekend every year in Wildwood. The turnout this past year was better than I’ve seen in a long time. It’s worth a visit even if you don’t know a kite from a helicopter – kite people don’t gatekeep their hobby in the way you might expect at a niche gathering. One of the coolest things about the Wildwoods kite festival is that you can “rent” a kite on-site for free.
I used to make kites out of Shop Rite plastic bags as a kid; my twin and I would tie a piece of string to each of the bag “handle” and run around waiting for the wind to take over. Our trash kites looked like plastic jellyfish plodding up and down.
Kites are easy to make at home – there are lots of easy guides online, and a sturdy nylon design uses inexpensive materials easily available at the craft store.
Our local Walmart stocks more vacation-oriented stuff than average. And that means a big kite display between the cosmetic and toy aisles early each summer. The latest addition to my collection is a flimsy Minecraft kite. That will run you five bucks. Even the nice designs, like a massive butterfly or a box kite, aren’t more than fifteen dollars. You should really shop locally if you can; the Cape May Beach and Bike Shop has a great selection of octopus kites.
There’s no “point” to flying a kite, nothing to work toward. But I think anchoring a kite besides a beach towel or picnic blanket elevates the day out. It’s windy, the sun shines hot in the sky, and a kite is a whimsical way to claim the day as your own.
