The kites arrived from New Orleans in a cardboard shipping tube addressed to our grandmother at 1982 Largo Place in San Marco. Her backyard, and the park there, were too confined for flying, so on her next trip out, she brought the kites to us in PV. They were three brightly colored Brazilian hawk kites made of heavily starched cotton fabric with bold graphics and spars made of thin aluminum tubing. They were sent by her brother, George, after one of his trips to Rio de Janeiro. Kite flying in Brazil in the ’70s was more than a casual pastime. It was a cultural tradition. The gifts from South America arrived with the late winter winds, and it was the ideal time of year for kite-flying on the beach.
But these weren’t just ordinary kites, however. These were tournament kites, intended for competitive flying, and they would attract as much attention in the community as a new tennis racquet might draw in a crowd at the Racquet Club, or how brightly colored patchwork trousers on display in the window of the Surf Shop might catch the eye of a visiting guest. They were exotic, contemporary and thoroughly spirited.
Preparations were underway for the annual Kite Day at Ponte Vedra/Palm Valley Elementary School, and the classroom bulletin boards displayed handmade student posters advertising the theme, “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” taking a cue from Charles Schulz cartoons and the movie, “Mary Poppins,” which had premiered seven years earlier. The field day would turn the school parking lot and the grass lawn into a festival ground stretching from the cafeteria to the lower edge of the Landrum’s pine tree farm north of the playing fields. The half-day event was co-sponsored by the Ponte Vedra Community Association, and its purpose was to help each grade learn about the science of wind, lift and aerodynamics, and to show off the school with an open house hosted by parents, teachers and students.
In many ways, Kite Day was a type of dress rehearsal for what would come next as the season began to change. Volunteers needed to be recruited for the annual Spring Fling, which was still a month or so away, and would take place on the other side of the school, by the lower wing, near the bus circle. For us kids, school festivals and events of this type were always exciting days.
February winds off the Atlantic are routinely steadiest starting around midday, and are best by 2 p.m. Kite Day included refreshments, a bake sale, tabletop displays, poster displays, classroom contests and kites of all sorts. The Parent Teacher Association, which later became the Parent Teacher Student Organization, had planned several awards in different categories. But because our kites stood out as the unusual specimens they were, rumors started rumbling that “those are not local kites.”
Growing up in PV in the ’70s was tough, but fair. Technicalities mattered. Nowhere was it stated that the kites needed to be local, or handmade, or any particular size or composition. But before we knew it, though, Principal Purcell had been pulled into the discussion, as had Randy Brown, who was volunteered by Mrs. Purcell to head the impromptu committee of parents who spontaneously formed around the entry table to examine the kites. The only thing missing from the deliberation was the official adoption by the group of Robert’s Rules of Order. Kite flying in PV in the ’70s was more than a casual pastime. It was serious business.
The kites’ engineering is what drew the criticism. These kites acted more like gliders, with the spars being able to be assembled and disassembled quickly. The construction seemed more professional than the other kites, and this, some felt, gave us an unfair advantage. But rules were rules and kites were kites. After the committee heard the story of where they came from and how they arrived in PV, and after seeing a flying demonstration, the kites were allowed, but with a caveat. The committee recommended the creation of a new category that Mr. Brown presented to Mrs. Purcell, who immediately approved of it. That year, my brothers and I won first place in the new International Class at PV/PV Elementary School Kite Day. We demonstrated we understood the whys and how’s of kite construction and its aerodynamics and could describe these principles accurately for the judges. Provenance was very important in PV, especially when it came to tournaments.
Teachable moments were a big part of the Ponte Vedra youth experience. These moments could be found in simple essay contests, letters to the Recorder editor, beach clean-ups, certain sandcastle-building techniques, stamp collections, unusual exhibition catalogs, certain tennis racquets or in a particularly effective golf swing passed down from player to player.
The subject didn’t matter. Watching and learning was a form of matriculation in PV. Trendsetters gained attention whether they were looking for it or not. The more unique and sublime the activity, the more attention it seemed to garner. There was always great interest in where things came from and where things ended up, and this included ideas and those actions incorporated from the ideas.
PV was never flashy. There was an art to being deliberately understated. Provenance always set the tone, and this allowed for the discovery of new and exciting new things. It was celebrated as an essential part of the dedicated community spirit at work in this smartly casual place of all places, Ponte Vedra Beach.
