PRETTY BOY, our family dog, enjoys getting to go with us when we go anywhere in our car. During hot weather it is not feasible for us to take him along. This is because the inside of the car heats up to an unbearable temperature without its air conditioner running. Even though Pretty Boy is disappointed when he doesn’t get to go, it is his welfare we are taking into consideration. A few days ago he was anticipating us getting ready to go somewhere. He began to follow me from room to room. I told him to “go fly a kite.” After using that expression I decided to use it in my column.

The expression: “go fly a kite” and its cousin phrases carry the same connotation. They’re used when someone is annoying you and it means go away, you’re bothering me. Phrases which mean the same thing include: “Go jump in the lake!” “Go climb a tree!” and “Go fry an egg!” Some may add to the one about a lake as: “Go jump in the lake and swallow a snake and have a bellyache.” In the past young folks used these expressions more often than adults did.

During the windy month of March is usually the best time to fly kites. Kites can be flown anytime of the year if there is sufficient wind blowing. When I was a little fella my brother Bill, who is a little over four years older than me, made some home-made kites. He obtained some sticks or very narrow slender board sticks and used the paper of brown paper sacks. He probably got the twine to fly them from our dad’s country grocery store. The tail of the kite was strips of cloth tied at intervals on a short string attached to the kite. That was back in the forties. By the fifties parents bought their children kites at a store.

Dub Mowery is a Gospel preacher in the Church of Christ. Presently he serves as full time evangelist for the Pittsburg Church of Christ. A native of Southeast Oklahoma, he is the author of Colloquial Sayings & Expressions (Morris Publishing, 2008)

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