Through An 'Old Timer's' Eyes
By Howard 'Mac' McDonald

March is always an interesting month. Yes, it "comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb."

The government has decreed March as National Women's Month. That got me thinking.

We could start out by calling January National Pay Your Christmas Bill Month. It could also be Bah Humbug Month. Even though we are a month closer to the graveyard, most people are happy when it is gone.

Our duly elected officials are in a designative mood, so they've declared February as Black History Month.

Maybe the powers that could conjure up something for the men. It would take longer than just one month to cover their history, so we couldn't call it National Men's History Month.

Maybe March ought to be designated National Wind Month. When I was a kid, March was kite-flying time. We saved string all year long and built our own kites from the sticks in Mom's window blinds.

We used old newspapers for the covering. The rag bag usually provided the tails, but sometimes Dad's neckties were pressed into service.

Our kites always seemed to have a mind of their own and if there was an electric line or tree nearby, they always managed to get hung up.

Kite flying has been around a long time and that is how Ben Franklin discovered electricity. I remember a huge kite my brother built. Buddy Talbert and Corky Kelly helped my brother Bill carry this oversized monstrosity up to the top of the hill at our greatgrandfather's pasture. I was only six years old and I tagged along.

My brother and his friends were 13 and knew everything they needed to get this thing in the air. Being the chief aeronautical engineer, my brother realized that regular string would not be strong enough. In the barn he found about 300 feet of baler twine and tied that to the kite.

The wind was blowing pretty hard and gusting to a higher speed. Bud had one side of the kite and Corky the other. The baler twine was wrapped around an old piece of broomstick, with my brother at the controls.

When the chief engineer gave the signal, the other two boys started running into the wind and the twine was being fed from the two boys' hands. It shot into the air like a rocket. The baler twine was coming off that broomstick so fast it was smoking.

My brother had dead-ended the twine on the broomstick and when all the slack was out, that big old kite dragged my brother along like a rag doll. After being bounced through a couple of cow patties and vaulting the barbed wire fence, he let go of the broomstick. That old kite soared off into the clouds and we

never saw it again.

My mom treated my brother's wounds, and I can still hear him whooping and hollering today. I remember her telling him, "Billy, bigger is not always better." He went back to the drawing board to design a box kite.

March is also famous for St. Patrick's Day, when wearing green makes everyone Irish for a day. Also, March 15 is the Ides of March -- the day that his political opponents assassinated Julius Ceasar. Then comes March 21. The first day of spring,w2 and a lot of folks are looking forward to it.

Elaine Davis called about the log cabin picture in Endeavor News. She said that her father built it and there is quite a story about that structure. I will report more on that when I can get some details. That column will be about Mail Pouch barns, thanks to Glenn Gutgsell and Marsha Lamont.

Well, time for dinner is here and I sure don't want to miss that fried chicken. The Redneck Dictionary defines "time" like this: "I don't know what the heck's wrong with my shoes, but I can't seem to time."