Redartz: Recently the weather, especially in it's more dramatic forms, has been very much in the news. Hurricanes, floods, droughts- all fill the headlines, and generally not in a good way. It got me to thinking back to those misty days of youth; what weather-related memories stand out for me?
Well, I very much loved to sit in the window and watch electrical storms (and still do). In college, I'd perch with my camera on a long exposure setting and try to catch lightning strikes on film. My fortunes in that regard weren't good; never did get one...
I had lots of great snow memories; days off from school and spent outside making forts and having snowball fights. And in high school, walking down the course of the frozen-over White River with my dog. He loved to go romping and sliding across the ice. The "Blizzard of '78" remains the ultimate example of wintry weather experience. Seeing my car buried to the hood: astounding.
Further back, in middle school: I vividly recall the outbreak of tornados in April, 1974. Hearing the sirens go off, and sitting down in the basement hoping the roof didn't fly away. No storms hit our neighborhood, but many disastrous twisters hit all around Indiana, and the entire midwest that day. The sight of a Volkswagen "Beetle" in the top of a tree remains etched in my memory.
Ok, you know the drill. Now you get to root through the cellars of your mind and share your rainy days, stormy Mondays, etc...
10 comments:
I'm with you on enjoying thunderstorms from a comfortable perch; I grew up in Oregon's Willamette Valley (a stretch of land that extended south of Portland between the Cascades and Coast Range), which back in the 1970s and '80s had a pretty mild climate, but it rained. A lot. Basically, skies were pretty much always overcast constantly from late September to early spring. I used to love sitting next to the living room window and watching a heavy downpour. I also loved curling up in bed, reading a comic book, while the rainfall drummed against the roof and windows of the house, or - since we had a barn with a hayloft - climbing up there, making a chair out of hay bales and, again, reading comic books (usually digests) while listening to the rain patter against the corrugated tin sheets on the roof. It's a very soothing sound, and I dozed off more than once doing that.
It didn't snow much where we lived, though, so we hardly ever had snow days. When it did snow, it usually didn't stick, much to the chagrin of every kid in the wider region. However, in the dead of winter we often had freezing rain, which could be really scary - sometimes the roads were as slippery as ice rinks. School actually got cancelled a few times because of that rather than snow.
Plenty of snow during my childhood here in MI. "Snow Days" however were rare back then though, the snow had to be practically over your head to get a day off school!
Tornado's are a moderate threat yearly (had one touchdown a couple of weeks ago in my town), protecting the comics was always a priority when I was a kid.
Some 30 odd years ago what's known around here as the "green sky day" happened. Very eerie, the calm before the literal storm. The sky turned green then all hell broke loose. Ended up being a Derecho storm, hurricane force winds, tornado, flooding. Crazy, crazy day.
I tell ya, edo-- that school-cancellation-for-freezing-rain thing is pretty darned common these days, I think. With my roots in SW Michigan, I've been perpetually (annually?) amazed for the past 35-ish years at how the DC-Metro area just collapses simply at the POSSIBILITY of inclement weather-- particularly snow. As a kid-- you had to figure on about a 5" to 6" event before cancelling school even became a question (and not a given at that). Here? ANY accumulation-- a half-inch!-- is gonna elicit 2-hour delays at the very least. And there have been multiple occasions of school being canceled the night before a potential snowstorm--- and then the storm never materializes. Sheesh!
My Mom-- oy-- born and raised in NE Arkansas, then moved to Michigan immediately after graduating (early/young) from college-- probably should have had her license revoked rather than let her drive in snow. To this day, she utterly, utterly freaks out and panics at the slightest slip, slide or fishtail. Multiple EARLY childhood memories of her sliding a bit on the road, throwing both hands over her head (*note*--NO LONGER HOLDING THE WHEEL), and shrieking "OH!OH!OH!OH!" as our now-driverless vehicle went careening into a snowbank or ditch or curb or (thankfully) nothing at all. I think there's only one time she actually did major damage to the car-- which is kinda a miracle, when you think about it!
(I coined the phrase "Flailing Snow-Panic" for this display of behavior, and my wife thought it was the most perfect description ever. It's become part of our family lexicon--)
HB
I live in Mississippi, where people suddenly lose the ability to drive when a snowflake hits the ground. Growing up, I only remember a couple of snow events....an inch or so would shut school down for two days, and we weren't real sure what to do with the snow, but we had lots of fun figuring it out. We actually took the slide off of a swing set and used it for a sled, which traveled much faster than we expected, but luckily wasn't harmed when we crashed into a tree
More often, we had to deal with freezing rain, which we hated. Since I work for the DOT, we are usually out in the road trying to clear them, which means dealing with these drivers who don't know how to handle frozen roads. Last year was particularly nasty because the storm actually blew in about six hours sooner than expected, so a lot of preparatory treatment measures had to be skipped.
During the spring, we have to deal with tornadoes and for summer and fall months, we have to worry about hurricanes. We are about 150 miles inland, so during hurricane season, it's mostly tornadoes, but when Katrina came calling, it was still a Cat 1, and that was all I ever wanted to have to deal with.
Thunderstorms are not too bad. During the hot summer months, the lightning is scary and the thunder gets pretty loud, but those slow one that sort of rumble through are pretty relaxing.
Living in Saskatchewan my whole life, I've come to hate snow with a passion. It's snowed twice here so far (including on the first day of fall, but the snow disappeared both times and it's relatively mild now.
I grew up in Wisconsin, so yeah, cold and snow were my childhood. I've had a snow shovel in my hands pretty much since I could walk. Skating, ice fishing, skiing, damn near everything you can and have to do in the cold, I think I've done. But Graham reminded me of sledding. Now that was fun. Building a bank at the bottom of a hill and then taking off into flight when you hit it. (I think of those Peanuts cartoons when Charlie Brown gets hit by a pitch as the perfect image of how we were flung) We used to do that until it was too dark to see, and we were covered head to foot in snow. Ice storms were always beautiful, and fun if you didn't have to drive.
My first year in Baltimore, there was a snowstorm, about 3ft. and it was the first time I had ever seen milk, bread and toilet paper disappear completely from supermarket shelves. Crazy, I thought. But then one day they closed the university for heavy rain. Heavy rain? Seriously?
It was a sunny, warm, and quiet Sunday morning, in July 1971, around 9:00 AM, with temperatures already in the 80s. I was 10 years old walking barefoot with my dad and little brother through the rather quiet streets that ran through the remaining sand dunes of Gary, Indiana, near the shores of Lake Michigan. We walked to the corner grocery where they had a spinner of comics and I purchased either Spidey 100 or 101. We then proceeded to walk a few hundred yards to the beach, walked along the beach, did a swim, and walked home in time for Mass. (I can’t recall why we walked to the grocery; surely not to get me a comic book, lol.)
Of course there were the blizzards of ’67 and ’78 and missing days and days of school! The Siberian cold front, in Europe, of early 1986, that all us soldiers cursed because we were conducting the massive Reforger exercises. The heat wave of ’95 that killed a few extra thousand Chicagoans. And there is the general warming of the planet that now allows me to regularly plant my garden as early as April 1, instead of waiting until May 15, the “safe date” for those of us who live in Region 5 of the USA!
But that peaceful walk on a sunny, warm Sunday morning and scoring that Spidey is a superlative childhood memory! I just re-read ASM 100 and 101. (Spoiler warning!) It may sound weird but seeing Spidey with 6 arms grosses me out, lol.
Dudes! I am going on a road trip! I have a fist full of silver age stuff from the "reading pile" that I never get to! My wife is driving first, while there is daylight! I also have a couple a Crush sodas and a Charleston Chew for old times sake!
Edo- Well, I'm with you regarding freezing rain. Nasty, nasty stuff. That black ice is absolutely treacherous...
Killraven- never heard of a "derecho" storm. Sounds pretty intimidating; green skies and all.
HB- wonderful story about your Mother. "Flailing Snow-Panic" is now etched forever in my imagination.
Selenarch- heavy rain closings? Well, I can understand that one, given the weather in the recent news...
Charlie- happy travelling, and happy reading!
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