The Kite Flyers

A Memory of Chester-Le-Street.

THE KITE FLYERS
The Second World War had just ended before I started school. In that summer the craze in the council estate was for kite flying. Me and my pal Brian used to watch the big lads, Sam,Teddy, Bobby and Ian, flying kites on the Green, just above Murray Road. The kites were made of garden canes split in two, or orange box laths split and shaved down, tied in the middle to form a cross, and the shape was made by tying string from one tip to the next. The frame was covered in newspaper stuck down with flour and water paste. The tail of the kite was a string with bows of newspaper tied on at about a foot apart. The most prize possession was the string. This was “sugar” string which was saved from parcels from the grocers and any where else it could be found . In those days people saved string as it had a lot of uses!
I remember that at the end of one day Sam gave me his kite string, which must have been about 100 feet long. I was surprised that anybody could give away such a prized possession! I had the string for years but it was gradually used by the family in bits and pieces for less exciting uses. What I didn’t know at the time was that Sam was starting work the next Monday and had no more time to fly kites. In those days there were no teenagers. One day you were a kid and the next a working man!

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