Crip courses and kite string

 Memorable Automobiles from The Past:

 

For today: This picture was sent to me by Grandson Josh. He caught me and Oliver Jack like this, THANKS JOSH!

NOW:  In my youth I made and flew hundreds of kites. My  favorite kite was the 3 stick kite.  

Since my dad was a preacher he had a suit cleaned at least one a week. They were returned to him covered with brown paper. There was enough paper to make two kites in each slip over cover. Mama used some of the paper but always saved me enough it for kites.

My kite string came in a ball, but ended up like this above. very few people brought in their kites winding like that.

Flying kites was one of the great, lazy ways to spend a day. If you were flying with friends it was time to tell stories and just joke and have fun.  If I flew alone, it was time to dream. I dreamed of being able to fly, not in a plane, but like Superman.  I also dreamed of having my own plane and flying to visit all over the world. In those first years I lived in Southern towns that were built on and around the textile (cotton) business. Of course I never gave a thought as to where that ‘kite string’ was made. Kite string was never wasted, we just tied another ball of it to the string already out on the kite. I just knew my kite was miles up in the sky, LOL!

We moved to Belmont. Just in time for High school; time to choose the courses I wanted to take. Belmont had 26 cotton mills. There was also a ‘Textile School’ over on Wilkinson Boulevard. You could elect Textile School for the mornings and be bussed to and from. You got 3 credits for that. I found out it was a ‘crip’ course that no ever failed, I jumped on it.

I did not plan to ‘Learn anything’, my plans had always been to quit school at 16 and join the USMC. WELL, I did learn something, I learned a lot. In that year I was taught every step from raw cotton to ‘spinning and winding’ thread (s). Next to Math/Algebra it became my favorite subject, it was actually learning.  I never had a job in the mill, but I learned what my dad always said, “The Cotton Mill workers earn every penny they are paid.”  He knew because he went from share cropping in North Georgia to working in the NC cotton mills during the depression.

This is getting too long, what I started off to say was I did learn where that kite string came from and how it was made. Then, like every phase of our lives, there is a story behind it. I did learn a lot and never did get to the weaving of those threads or see how kite string was wound into those neat little balls.

Ok be truthful, did you ever pick a course because it was considered a 'crip' (easy) course?

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