One day every autumn since 1996, the sky above where the ocean kisses the sand in Seal Beach becomes awash in colorful kites. This year it will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20.
When viewing the gentle sea breeze blow through the kites gliding delicately in the air, it is hard not to think of its founder, the late Monty Weston.
She was like the kites, a gentle and kind soul who made it easy for people to smile.
An example of Monty’s blithe spirit was the way she would dress up as Mary Poppins for the Seal Beach Christmas Parade to the delight of old and young alike and reminding us all of the character who would magically arrive via her umbrella, seeming to float down from the sky, kind of like a kite.
It seems that she was also fragile like a kite as she died a few years ago, too quickly after a battle with cancer.
Weston was the owner of Up, Up and Away Kites on Main Street in Seal Beach and started the festival with her son Randy. It started as a nice little quaint event and its popularity was instant and has never seemed to wane.
Know known as “The Japan America Kite Festival, it has grown to become the largest kite festival in Southern California and one of the most “family friendly” kite festivals worldwide, according to its promoters. I hope Monty would be proud of her legacy of introducing many youngsters to the pleasure of flying a kite and the kite festival’s turning the heads of so many young and old who are drawn to Seal Beach to see the sea of color in the sky one day each year.
The festival will also include a bit of cultural exchange with Japanese and international kites of all sizes and colors as well as Japanese food and cultural booths. However, I especially appreciate the kite workshop for the kids. It brings back memories of my grandfather on my mother’s side. Growing up until the age of 15 on the island of Barbados, he learned to amuse himself by making kites.
When I was a young boy he used to make kites for my seven siblings and me. He could fashion a serviceable box kite using only household items like paper grocery bags, some homemade flour paste for glue and some light scraps of wood sticks that might just need some quick whittling. Oh yes, and some string. It was amazing to watch it all come together and then see that they would actually fly.
There’s simplicity, yet also magic, to kites.
You might think that when a kite flies it’s just the wind doing what it does naturally.
Yes, that may be true but if you think about it there is something scientific about kites that connect us with nature and history. Kites were a precursor to man’s conquering gravity and eventually led to the first airplanes as built by the Wright brothers. Their first plane somewhat resembled a kite and kites were used in the early experiments to understand the aerodynamics that eventually made human flight possible.
Who can forget the picture of Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in a thunderstorm, performing experiments in electricity that supposedly led to his discoveries and invention of the lightening rod – his most famous invention in his lifetime as it prevented many a wooden home from burning down.
And yet, a child can easily learn how to fly a simple kite. All they need is the kite and some wind and before you know it they are defying nature’s universal force of gravity. How sublime.It is nice to have an event that seems to fit in well with the atmosphere at the beach. It is also a welcome idea to have something so positive we can think of about the month of October in this so-called “Mayberry by the Sea.”
It is also fitting for the legacy and memory of such a kind, friendly and breezy friend to all in Seal Beach, Monty Weston.
Dennis Kaiser is the editor of the Sun Newspaper.
