For the last two years I’ve joined in the #atozchallenge, namely to post every weekday in April using each letter of the alphabet in turn. In 2015 it was places I’d been to, in 2016 it was London themed. This year it is a dictionary of my family, recounting incidents small and large that have taught me lessons down the years, caused me consternation or generally seared themselves into my memory. I hope you enjoy them. To find other bloggers doing the challenge and maybe be inspired yourself, check out the A to Z Blogging Challenge Blog, here.
Today I’m combining with Irene Waters Times Past memoir prompt which this month is ‘weather’. I’m a late blooming Baby Boomer for Irene’s categories…
It wasn’t always sunny when I was a kid that’s for sure. Yes, I remember sunny days – one especially sticks out when I sat down in some long grass and found a broken milk bottle – by the expedient of lacerating my bum. I was maybe 6. It was horrendous but my parent always told me I was very brave. Whatever, it hurt to all buggery and started me on my collection of stitches that down the years have easily topped 100.
No, the two climatic conditions that really stick out are the winter of 1962/63 and especially the period around February when we had snow for a month or more. School shut regularly and mum pulled us to the shops on a toboggan. I think that was the first, maybe only time, when I really really didn’t want any more snow. Now it is so rare it’s a treat to see, even with the chaos that ensues. Or it means skiing.
The other is rain. I loved downpours. Not drizzle or brief pulses of rain but proper old-fashioned ‘it’s set in for the day’ rain. One memory especially sticks out. We lived in a cul-de-sac called Anne’s Walk. Number 5 – was it oh brother of mine? I’ve gone a blank. Anyhow, the houses started at the top of a short but steepish slope and when it rained – this being the highest point around, the water ran off, down the gutters at a fair old rate. One day – I’d have been 7-9 ish and I was on my own which probably meant the Archaeologist was at Scouts or something and I wasn’t – I was already soaked by the time I reached the bus stop down in the town, maybe half a mile from school. It was still hosing down when I got off, about a quarter-mile from home and, turning into Anne’s walk, with no one around, the world utterly drenched and a small tsunami racing down the guttering I danced up through the deepest water and back down and up again, three or four times. It was bliss.
My school sandals – so this was the summer term and a summer storm – were drenched and my socks so full of water that they had wrapped themselves round my shoes. My raincoat – ha! – blazer, shirt and vest plus shorts and pants were saturated and I was in heaven. It was only as I approached our front door that I wondered if Mum would appreciate how wet I was. Probably not.
So I knocked and waited to be let in, somewhat tremulous.
She took one look at me and laughed fit to bust. She said after that I looked so happy she couldn’t be cross. Mind you she made me strip off every stitch of clothing in the hall was which was embarrassing so she had some retribution.
The Lawyer it turns out is the same as me, utterly in love with rain. Nowadays, I’m more reticent but, you know, there’s still a part of me that on warm sultry days when a storm breaks, wants to head outside…
TanGental 
💝💜🤣
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I do love warm rain… takes me back to childhood summers in Kenya!!!
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Ah yes well we never had it that warm I expect!,
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Lol!!!
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My mum and dad got married during that horrendous winter of 62/63, and as everyone got snowed in afterwards they spent their wedding night in one of twin single beds at my grandparents house, with my aunt and uncle and their 6-week-old baby sharing the second twin bed… not the best start to marital bliss! 🙂
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Best weddings are often best remembered for those sorts of horrors.
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Number 7
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Darn and drat. Why did I forget that!!
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I love that story! I’m a rain lover still – though these days I go out in my workman’s rain jacket and pink gumboots – but still and all we get saturated and it is so much fun!!
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Rain is special isn’t it. No idea why.
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And in the 63 winter, at the grand old age of 7, I tried to build an igloo in the garden, following the picture in a Ladybird book,
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I didn’t know that. Did it collapse on dad?
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Sadly no, i only managed to get the walls two foot high and never managed any overhang, it collapsed on me a couple of times
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Ha that sounds likely. And.mum just left you to bury yourself alive!!
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Funny you should mention storms and rain, Geoff. I am what you could call a “cloud chaser”, a side-effect of being a photographer. Needless to say, after awhile you’ve seen all the ho-hum clouds you might’ve been enamoured with initially. Now, you’ll only pull the camera out when they’re truly spectacular and to the casual observer, impending doom.
Two years ago, I got caught in the car parked at the beach as a fierce hail storm hit and busted through the back of the roof, with the kids alone at home. I came home to find them on the phone to 000 and hastily needing to move all our computer equipment and research materials from my desk.I vowed: “never again” after that. However, to be honest, that was partly because I thought I’d never beat that storm images again.
I have been behaving myself. However, on Wednesday after dropping Miss off at Dance Camp, I went on walking tours of Richmond and Windsor checking our old buildings. I did notice some huge white clouds towering over the horizon and even though they weren’t that same shade of dark purple, I did flag their potential to erupt.
I ended up caught in a mild hailstorm this time but very heavy rain which built up quickly on the roads and I did aquaplane a little but only once. I was about 2 hours from home so decided to out drive the storm and just wanted to get out. I did make a note that my safe arrival home was a worthy prayer point..a point of gratitude.
xx Ro
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Goodness we get nothing or very little like that. Actually sounds exciting when your not in it I suppose.
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I don’t mind a bit of rain, but not too keen on the sort of downpour you entioned.. Mind you it must have been fun splashing about in it! 🙂
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I know what you mean. I don’t feel as guilty being in front of the computer all day on rainy days. They certainly have their uses.
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