Reminiscing

So a few months ago I put together what I call the Ultimate (Virtual) U2 Concert - I pulled live performances from about 20 bootlegs and live official releases - fifty plus songs (like 4 hours, I think).

One of the songs that I play a lot is from their All You Can't Leave Behind album - Kite.

Somewhere I can taste the salt of the sea

There's a kite blowing out of control on the breeze

I wonder what's going to happen to you

Do you wonder what has happened to me?

The story of the song is that Bono came home from tour and wanted to do some "daddy" stuff - took his kids up on a hill near the sea and tried to fly a kite and it was an unmitigated disaster.

I love the song - I have my own kite stories.

When I was four years old we lived on Shelter Island, a little island off of the north shore of Long Island, NY. It's only accessible by ferry ( I just Google mapped it - yeah, I thought that somehow I'd be able to tell where I lived 38 years ago from above...). Anyway, that was the summer of Hurricane Agnes - infamous around here for raising the water level in the Kinzua Reservoir to ridiculous levels. But living on the coast (I seem to remember a ruined concrete pier within walking distance of our house on Shelter Island) - well, the hurricane hit pretty hard, even as far north as we were. I remember being locked in the house for days - begging to go outside (yeah, in the howling wind and rain...I was four, what do you expect). We spent a lot of time in the basement with the crickets (yuk) - I can still describe the basement - it was open - steps came down from the center of the basement toward one wall - we had a side room where our toys were kept (though I might be conflating that last detail with my cousin's basement from the same era).

Anyway - a couple days and my sister and I were driving mom nuts. We couldn't wait to get out of the house. My dad was the island's cable guy. You can imagine that after Agnes blew out my dad was pretty busy getting people's tvs going again. He was gone literally all day (as I remember it) - you know, sunrise to past sunset days. But he did come home for lunch - probably dinner, too.

On this particular day, the storm had finally blown out - but it was still pretty windy - so I took my kite outside and I started to fly it. And it WORKED! I got that 29 cent toy (hey, this was '72) aloft and kept it up.... 'Till dad came home and I got so excited to see him that I let go of the string...and the kite flew away.

And I watched it go - bawling (remember, four years old...) and my dad scooped me up and put me in the passenger seat of the cable truck and took off after that stupid kite. We caught up with it at a boat launch, hanging in a tree. After a struggle (and probably some colorful language) the kite came down, dad drove me home and then went back to work - no lunch, because he had to rescue his little boy from his own carelessness.

And that kind of sacrifice inspires me - and makes me wish I was a better father sometimes.

And Rachel has a kite story, too - though not as long (you're welcome) or, well, as meaningful. She got a kite (99 cents, man - inflation) when she was about 3 or so and we put it together and went over to Beaty park to fly it. It was a perfectly windy day - but we just couldn't get it going. We tried and tried...and, nothing. More like Bono, I guess. I was trying to be a good dad and make a memory of kite flying with my little girl... Oh well... I guess at least I was there with her...

So, I think of all of the above (and a mishmash of emotions to boot) every time I hear or sing the song:

Somewhere I can taste the salt of the sea

There's a kite blowing out of control on the breeze

I wonder what's going to happen to you

Do you wonder what has happened to me?