Summer Rains

It is absolutely pouring out. An enormous monster of a cloud rolled in, kicked up a pretty good wind and then has been unloading gallons on water over my head. I am fortunately in the house and watching all this take places safely through the glass. From in here it is very satisfying and kind of entertaining and a change from the bright sunshine and the oppressive heat. I had no outside activities planned and I have no place I need to be.

It made me think of other summer rains. Like the ones that fell on my grandparent's farm house. It would be so very hot and a summer rain would come up and we would gather on the front porch to watch and dance in the water that ran from the roof and cascaded over the front edge. It was always hotter and stickier after the rain, a good reason to avoid it at all costs, but it was always a highpoint. I have had the good fortune of listening to the rain drop against a tin roof and it is the sweetest sound. It's almost like music.

One summer rain I remember as not at all musical. It was accompanied by howling winds and thunder and lightening and it shook the windows in their frames. I announced this to my dad and he responded in that loving, caring, who wanted all these children way "Well, what would you like me to do about this?". I guess I didn't expect him to do anything except take note. Surely he had seen the Wizard or Oz and knew that we should be heading for a storm shelter or rolling up in a rug or whatever one is supposed to do when one's house is being shaken. However, we didn't and here I am years later. Still there is no doubt that was a serious moment of failing on old Dad's part. He deserved some of those ugly ties.

I don't know how old I was when my brother and I dubbed lightening as color television. It's really a silly name since it is very black and white, but that's what we called it and I used to love to lay in bed and watch it. We had very active imaginations. We used to climb into one of the bunk beds and ride them to various locations of the world. I think this was a result of watching Bednobs and Broomsticks but I am not sure. We sold each other our shoes, always delighted to find just exactly what we were looking for in the perfect size. My older brother was good at this game. He would first show us our parents shoes and they were always the wrong size. This elongated the shopping trip and made the right shoes so much more satisfying. We were creative artists always making some piece of art or another. We used aluminum pie pans to make picture holders and greeting cards to make place mats and jigsaw puzzles. We tried to make food with the easy bake oven but somehow that didn't seem to ever result in anything edible.

Makes me realize that I need to be making some of these memories with the current generation. Only who keeps greeting cards and aluminum pie pans? Does easy bake still exist? We still have shoes of course. Sam the man still has bunk beds. Perhaps it's time to take one for a wild ride. Happy Summer Rains!