Rainy days
June 4, 2007The rainy days of late brought me back to being 12 again. May was always notorious for bad weather. Some people have a knack of keeping sparkling clean despite the mucky streets. Not me. I always used get muddy streaks at the back of my trousers when I walk and even my habitual biking would give me the splashes of sludge down the back of my shirt.
I recall the big, blue plastic container we have at the back of our old house, the one that we use to trap rainwater from the eaves. There was a lack of running water back then, and we would try to collect water whenever we can.
I remember the hot, sticky humidity that clings to the silence before the storm.
It can sometimes come like a curtain of water. It starts out as an April’s Fools day of sunshine – the complacent belief you can leave your umbrella at home. When it starts, there’s that smells that brings all the memories back, of the earth and the air being cleansed. I would look out from the dry comfort of our door and reach out my hand, hesitating slightly as if the raindrops could hurt. It has to be a certain intensity to be perfect for bathing. Not too light, cause that’s just boring and not too heavy to be scary. It had to be just enough to completely drench a twelve year old in shorts and a cotton tank top in about 5 seconds of exposure.
When it felt right, I would rush in, and the sound of rain would overpower everything else.
Previous Comments
hehehe i guess i remember May fondly cause it’s probably the only rainy month without the floods.
Posted by wildwander at June 5, 2007, 4:20 am
You were speaking in past tense, so I’m assuming you were referring to the Philippines.
But May = bad weather? Wait til July and August. You’ll remember too, in September, when the winds pick up speed and storms come in, making for reeeeeally exciting weather. Complete with thunderstorms!
Then October and November happens, and the winds start to die down. And it’s nothing but water. Depressing.
Posted by Cobalt at June 5, 2007, 1:05 am