Behind the Headlines

By Adam Bennett adam@monroenews.com

There are times for every reporter that genuinely memorable moments happen. Then there are the times that make you want to bury your head in the sand.

I had one of those moments today.

While on assignment at Munson Park, I ran across a Monroe man that was flying a kite in the winter wind that swirled around the park’s large sled hill. He pulled and jerked the kite’s strings to make it artfully chase and dodge through the air.

What a sight.
I thought he would have a great perspective among the throngs of kids that were there to sled their day away. Just as I thought, he did.

The man told me he bought the kite in Florida and has practiced hard at perfecting the intricate motions needed to make it slash and dramatically dive.

As he maneuvered the kite around, he said he wanted me to see the antique sled he had in his truck. He handed me the reigns of the fast-moving kite and explained the “not-so-hard” instructions to keep it level.

Obviously, the directions didn’t work. I pulled the kite left to make it dodge and then pulled it right. But my pull to the right put the kite right into the ground. The kite made an unsightly nose-dive straight into the one patch of pavement that was sticking out of the snow-covered ground.

Red-faced, I apologized for crashing the kite and told him I was really more of a balloon kind of guy.