Rain, rain, go away…

W

hen did we lose our excitement for downpours, lightning and thunder? I rushed home from running an errand when I saw the sky blackening. What ran through my mind was that I had to hurry and get a tarp over the deck furniture cushion before they get soaked! Did I leave anything out that shouldn’t get wet?

As kids, more often than not, we’d run outside when we heard a BOOM! of thunder. We didn’t give a hoot about getting rained on. We’d laugh so hard when it poured rain so hard that it felt like someone was spraying us with a hose full blast. Our clothes were soaked in seconds. Rivers of water poured down the strain.

We’d all run to the largest puddles and stomp our feet to see who could make the biggest splash. Our sneakers would take days to dry after that. We didn’t care. Once the rain stopped we’d run back into the house to dry off and change our clothes. We’d put our waterlogged sneakers on the porch to dry, hoping that it wouldn’t take more than a day or two to dry enough so that our socks wouldn’t get wet. Most of us had a ratty pair with holes or rips in them for just this sort of an emergency.

We never thought to say rain, rain, go away; come again some other day! We didn’t care if our skateboarding or kickball game was interrupted we knew that a thunderstorm was great fun and that it wouldn’t last long. So why not enjoy it while it lasted?

It’s kind of sad that, as adults, our first thoughts are to get out of the rain and protect our belonging instead of running outside, looking up at the sky and laughing while fat raindrops pelt out face. Still, I very much enjoy sitting by a window and enjoy the peaceful feeling that a good gully washer brings.