Summer Rain

On the second day of summer, I worked all afternoon in the rain. It felt great and it triggered some memories.

Growing up, rain was our only hope in summer. Long, hot days - no air conditioning. Oh, a few friends homes had a window unit in the den and in mom an dad’s bedroom – and the doctor’s office had one, too - but those cool places were off limits to kids. 

So was Belk’s - the first store in our town to have central air (even the movie theatre had only giant, noisy fans). We would duck into the cool store whenever we could, pretending to shop for knit pants and bright knit shirts (made of wonderful, miracle polyester!) – but the manager was never fooled and always shooed us away immediately. (We were puzzled at how he knew we had no money.)

We experimented with spending the whole, hot day in the Y pool - but we couldn’t do that often because of the sunburn. (And if anybody had sunscreen - we didn’t. What the girls had was tanning cream. Whatever that was.)

So rain was our only hope for relief in summer. (Or a cold bath - but that wasn’t great because the “cold” tap water was tepid. And parents would rarely let us use the garden hose for more than a few seconds.) 

Nights so hot, I would lie on the floor next to the bed because it was (a little) cooler than the bed. 

But, ah, when it rained! I would set myself up on the front porch (day or night) with a stack of comics or one of those canned science kits sold by Western Auto in the toy section. Hearing the rain, smelling the rain - once in a while going to just stand in the rain. Summer bliss.

A few years ago, a group of kids from the Middle East were at camp in the North Georgia HIlls. (http://www.kidsforpeaceglobal.org) A heavy rainstorm blew in - and the kids ran outside laughing, jumping, excited (the way we would have been in a snow storm). They had never before seen heavy, sustained rain. From a dry part of the world - one of their lingering memories of America would be summer rain.

On the second day of summer, I worked all afternoon in the rain. It felt great and it triggered some memories.