Writers' Pantry #61...Rainy days always take me back to the rainy days of childhood, still vivid in my mind. Submitted to Poets & Storytellers United, March 14, 2021
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“Rainy days and Mondays always get me down”, but not me! As early as I can remember, I’ve loved rain. In our part of the Illinois prairie, you could see the spring rain clouds building from miles away over the vast flatness, their skirts billowed out like great clucking mother hens. By the time they reached the far edge of the corn field beside the house, you could see the leading edge of the curtain of rain. The distant patter on the corn leaves crescendoed to a wonderful rat-a-tat as the first big splats set off spurts of dust in the barnyard. Ah, the wonderful earthy, fresh, sweet smell of rain!
Summer storms were wonderful too. Sometimes the distant sky turned almost black, the clouds rolling and tumbling, shaking themselves free of lightning bolts that arced to earth over the dark green field, the distant rumbling thunder building to bone-jarring cracks that accompanied spectacular electrical displays as the storm moved overhead. Majestic. Magnificent. I don’t remember fear, only awe, and somehow reassurance that I was part of a greater scheme of things. While I’ve lived my adult life in cities, rainy days always take me back to those prairie rains.
The rains you describe so vividly and deliciously take me back to my own childhood in Kansas, where we experienced storms very much like the ones from your Illinois prairie days. Happy Sunday to you! (You've certainly brightened mine!)
ReplyDeleteThank you. So glad your memories were piqued!
DeletePrairie rains must be beautiful. Mine just make things soggy and gray. I do enjoy a summer rain though.
ReplyDeleteI like rain once im in my house, i know that's a very selfish attitude. Happy Sunday
ReplyDeleteMuch💜love
Wonderful memories, Beverly. Lightning crossing the skies and the rolling thunder that would seem to echo forever...
ReplyDeleteI danced in the rain in my youth (now, not so much}.
OK! Enough! Are you certain we are not related? Illinois thunderstorms, rains in the spring and summer, I could never get enough of them. Life in Bend on Oregon's High Desert ... not so much. Remember Martin Denny's 'Quiet Village' it was my go to song for years.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of Martin Denny and "Quiet Village", so of course I went to YouTube. Talk about music transporting you to other places! What lovely, relaxing, going to sleep in the rain forest kind of music. I love it!
DeleteA rain storm on the prairie must be such a cool sight! The closest I've come to that is watching a storm roll in over the bay when vacationing in Maine.
ReplyDeleteMostly, I think rain is OK if I'm inside. But once, watching something on TV set in Tasmania where I grew up, and seeing a tree-fern drip with rain, I was assailed by such a pang of homesickness! Quite unexpected. Tasmania, with its forests, mountains and quick rivers, couldn't be less like the prairies you describe, but I guess our childhoods stay with us in any case.
ReplyDeleteIt's always amazed me how certain scents and sounds can take me back in a heartbeat. I know little of Tasmania, and would like to learn more,
DeleteI'm thinking of the Beatles song Rain and how I used to be able to smell the rain before it came when I was a kid.
ReplyDeletethis is such a vivid and fascinating description of rain in the prairies, something which i have not seen, or ever experience. It must be an awe-inspiring sight.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved the rain, and yes, it was different on the Nebraska farm than it is here along the Texas Gulf Coast. Our rains here are quite often heavy, coming in off the Gulf or down from the north west. Five to eight inches often come at one time without serious flooding.
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Many years ago my wife and I we quite unprepared to get home from work with just basic clothes and no raincoats and umbrellas and a storm decided to say Hi!. So we caught a train home and at our station just had to accept we were getting drenched, so instead hiding somewhere we walked the short distance hom and got thoroughly wet all through. We laughed for years at what we looked like when we got home.
ReplyDeleteThe outback is having a lot of rain uncharacteristically.The weeds are out of control.Had to machete my way into the property a week ago,The tanks are full...yep that means full baths up to the neck...a luxury out here.
ReplyDeleteThe outback is a fascination to me. Also the traditions of the indigenous aboriginals. I love their term "belonging place" and other of their traditions. Interesting that you do not take water for granted in the outback, as we do here.
DeleteI enjoyed your piece, with all its imagery. It reminds me of my grandparents' house. They live in a rural area in Montana, and I remember a storm that happened there one time when my family was visiting. However, I remember more fear than awe, unlike you!
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