Day 47 #100DaysOfOldDays
Today’s post is also part of #WQW from Marsha Ingrao on Always Write Blog. Rain Has The Edge!
How does rain fit into chats about the old days? Rain is the same—probably—since the first day it ever rained on earth. I wonder when that was! Do we even know? How would we know? I’m stopping there because that kind of thing freaks me out! I like talking about the old times but NOT as far back as the beginning of time.
Rain may be the same as it always was, but in this neck of the woods, I notice one little thing that has changed.
Unless our children are into football or hurley they can’t be out in the rain. Play outside in the rain? No…they might catch a cold, the rain might seep into their pores and dilute their blood (maybe). I’d have a canary if my child was outside playing in the rain. I might get reported for neglect if nothing else.
When we were children we played outside a lot. We went home when we were hungry, at bedtime, or if our lives were in danger.
We were also mini meteorologists—all of us.
When we’d feel a few drops of rain, we’d laugh and then look up to the sky to predict our actions. Stay out or go home?
One or two pale grey clouds meant a brief shower; no need to go home.
A moderate cloudy sky with more white clouds than grey ones, meant a drizzly type of rain—it will make us wet but it will happen slowly; no need to go home.
A cloudy sky with the sun peeping through a dark grey one, meant a sun shower (our favourite); definitely no need to go home.
Scattered grey clouds in a blue sky, meant slow rain—big fat drops that tumbled down leisurely, with loads of space between each one, so we could dodge most of them; no need to go home.
Swirling grey clouds on a windy day, meant find the nearest bush and stay under it until the rain passes; no need to go home.
A black sky with no sign of blue, a rumbling in the distance. Mmm…scan further afield with our radar eyes. If the hills of East Knockbride suddenly illuminated under a flash of lightening; go home immediately.
The sun shines after the storm; go back outside.
This reminds me of the time I was on the back lane smoking with my friend Anne. We were sharing a Gold Bond cigarette that she sneaked from her mother. Too engrossed in the secrecy of smoking, we didn’t look up to the sky when it began to rain.
We took shelter deep in the bushes. As we puffed on the coffin nail, the thunder lifted us out of it. We contemplated making a run for it but we were too afraid that the lightening would hit us. We stayed in the bushes shivering with fright. I don’t know about Anne, but I got into terrible trouble when I got home for staying out during the thunder storm.
Having said all that, we live in denial of Ireland’s ability to slyly amalgamate the seasons. The first sign of a heatwave and we swarm to the beach. Only to get there and realise, it’s not a heatwave…it’s just the sun coming out of hibernation. We sit on the cold sand wrapped in a towel oblivious to the grey damp clouds on the horizon. We ignore the wee drops of rain because we’ve made it to the beach and we’re all set up now—our windbreakers will keep us dry!
We go off walking in the sunshine without an umbrella or a raincoat, and then get caught in the rain. We organise barbecues when the sun comes and end up finishing everything inside on the grill.
We have Easter egg hunts—in the snow!
Yet…we don’t send the children out to play in the rain like in the old days! We’re a funny bunch really!
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Gloria McBreen 
This sounds so much like my childhood, apart from the smoking bit! I even went out and played football in the snow – on my own if none of my mates’ parents would let them out 🤣
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I know a lad who played in the snow wearing shorts and a vest! 😅
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We had to do cross country running like that!
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Pingback: WQW #12: Rain Has the Edge – Marsha Ingrao – Always Write
Such a fun post about Ireland. It’s weird here about children, too. For one thing, their time is organized, whereas ours was not. You never see children playing in yards or on the street by – themselves – rain or no rain. Your last quote sums up your post about when to go inside. LOL. The most trouble I ever got into rainwise, was playing outside in February in Indiana (very cold). The rain and snow had melted to make a huge puddle in the vacant lot next to my neighbor’s house. So Gene and I at first played around with it. Then I’m sure someone fell in. So we both jumped in, time after time. Mom was not pleased with either of us when we finally came home.
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Yes, there’s so much organized activities for children these days.
Haha….I can imagine the fun it was in that big puddle.
Which reminds me of the time I was walking home from school, on my own, in the rain, and I stopped to tap my feet in a puddle. Just a little puddle!
A neighbour woman came along and gave me a good telling-off.
“Look at your lovely shoes now. Wait until your mother sees that. They’re soaked. An terrible thing to be doing…dancing in the puddles with your good shoes.”
I’ll never forget it. I even remember the shoes. Black patent t-bar. 🤣🤣
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Grumpy old lady. We had a neighbor girl who did the same thing in her new white shoes. She was walking with her dad and stopped to jump in the puddle several times. I said almost what your grumpy lady said, she kept on jumping into the puddle. No major repercussions that I know of and we are all still good friends.
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What an interesting and fun look back at rain. Your meteorological view seems very reasonable to me! You made me think about how what it is like to be in the rain. If we are caught unprepared, we first try to do our best to stay dry or limit the rain – but eventually give in to look like a soaked pet.
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Thinking about it…once upon a time, man had to predict the weather themselves.
When I get caught in the rain, my first thought is, ‘save my hair’. 😏
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