Run Daddy, Run!

I haven’t posted for a very long time, but I’m back for now and have a funny to tell you. I love funnies.

When I was married to my child’s father, I was 31, he was 35, when she was 4 years old. (this was 28 years ago). Anyway, we went to Amarillo and did some shopping – mostly window shopping at the new Westgate Mall. Malls were new, but springing up all over Amarillo.

During a quick trip through a game store, we found a kite. It was beautiful. The colors were bright and bold and every color of the rainbow. It had a tail of many long streamers, each a different color. Our daughter squeaked with delight as she proudly carried her new kite to the register to pay for it.

The next day was Sunday, so we took the kite to a favorite part of town to fly it. The place we went was actually just a new part of town that had paved streets but no houses. It was so large that many people, including me, often used it to “walk the mile”.

My daughter and I walked a bit with her daddy until he decided he was in far enough to fly the kite. He tied on the kite string and prepared to take off with it. He turned toward my daughter and in his child voice, he shouted, “Want to see Daddy run with the kite?”

“Run Daddy, run!” She screamed and jumped up and down. She didn’t have a clue what a kite was but she was all good with what ever Daddy wanted to do. So, he took off running. There were runners, walkers, and other kite fliers there that day. Daddy weaved in and out of everyone, running like a jack rabbit. The kite didn’t fly.

He finally brought it back to the car after running up and down the block several times. He adjusted his string, thinking he could get more lift if it were in a different place. Then he ran up and down the block several more times. Our daughter loving it every step of the way. The kite didn’t fly.

We couldn’t figure out why our kite was grounded while other kites had been flying high since we’d gotten there at least an hour ago. So, Daddy adjusted the string and tied a few of the tails together and gave it another go. Kite didn’t fly, but our daughter screamed with laughter and shouted, “Run Daddy, run!”

We finally gave it up and went home. Our daughter was not disappointed, so we let her believe everything was as it should have been. A few days later, I was watching TV and during a commercial for the Mall we’d bought the kite in, I heard them bragging about their new wind socks. In the background was our “kite”, whipping around beautifully from the wind made by a nearby fan.

I laughed until I cried. Even my husband’s eyes watered with laughter when I told him about it later. We went to the corner gas station the next Sunday, forked out 2 bucks for a cheap kite and added a long tail that our daughter helped to tie. We had a great time.