I grew up - well, my teen years, anyhow - about 20 miles south and west of where I live now. There was a lot more open country there than there is here. By "open" I mean unoccupied, no one living on it. My nearest neighbor was about half a mile away over a couple of ridges. That was a "close" neighbor. Most dwellings had a lot more space between them.
I'd get up around 7 am on many mornings and hit the hills, spend the entire day until sundown or a bit later out and about, roaming the woods, fields, and thickets, or wandering up or down the river. It wasn't unusual for me to be 5 or 6 miles away from the house on foot when a sudden storm would blow up. Didn't really have any choice but to play in the rain. Many was the time that I'd put my rifle on my shoulder for a lighting rod, and walk out ridges, daring the lightning to hit me. It never did. It got close some times, but never on target. I saw it hit an old weeping willow tree once, one that was around 300 years old, and blow it up into match sticks. Just that quick - BOOM! and when the smoke cleared, there was nothing there but a ragged stump and about an acre of busted willow laying all over the place.
It can be surmised that I got soaked clear to the bone on many of those occasions.
I've been out on nights so dark and stormy that I'd have to wait for the next lightning flash to be able to tell where my next step should go, to avoid falling over a cliff or a mountainside. I've seen the lightning hit the ground and "splash" - send runners of brilliant light out in all directions along the ground from the strike site.
I guess it goes without saying that I've never been afraid of lightning. It's been my friend more times than it's been my enemy.
When I was REAL little, I'd go sit and watch lightning storms out the window... until mom caught me and made me move away from the window. She always had a fear that lightning would somehow enter the insulating glass of a window just to seek me out and "get me".
But it never did.
Old timers here always said that if it rains when the sun shines, that means it's going to rain at the same time the next day. Sometimes that pans out, sometimes it doesn't. Never heard about the devil beating his wife at those times, though. That's a new one to me.
The old timers here also used to say that when you could see an actual ray of sunlight coming through the clouds, that was the sun "drawing up water" for more rain on down the road.
Something else they used to say was that when you saw particular trees "turning" their leaves to show their lighter undersides, that meant it was going to rain some time in the next 3 days. That one I've found to be pretty accurate.
.
I'd get up around 7 am on many mornings and hit the hills, spend the entire day until sundown or a bit later out and about, roaming the woods, fields, and thickets, or wandering up or down the river. It wasn't unusual for me to be 5 or 6 miles away from the house on foot when a sudden storm would blow up. Didn't really have any choice but to play in the rain. Many was the time that I'd put my rifle on my shoulder for a lighting rod, and walk out ridges, daring the lightning to hit me. It never did. It got close some times, but never on target. I saw it hit an old weeping willow tree once, one that was around 300 years old, and blow it up into match sticks. Just that quick - BOOM! and when the smoke cleared, there was nothing there but a ragged stump and about an acre of busted willow laying all over the place.
It can be surmised that I got soaked clear to the bone on many of those occasions.
I've been out on nights so dark and stormy that I'd have to wait for the next lightning flash to be able to tell where my next step should go, to avoid falling over a cliff or a mountainside. I've seen the lightning hit the ground and "splash" - send runners of brilliant light out in all directions along the ground from the strike site.
I guess it goes without saying that I've never been afraid of lightning. It's been my friend more times than it's been my enemy.
When I was REAL little, I'd go sit and watch lightning storms out the window... until mom caught me and made me move away from the window. She always had a fear that lightning would somehow enter the insulating glass of a window just to seek me out and "get me".
But it never did.
Old timers here always said that if it rains when the sun shines, that means it's going to rain at the same time the next day. Sometimes that pans out, sometimes it doesn't. Never heard about the devil beating his wife at those times, though. That's a new one to me.
The old timers here also used to say that when you could see an actual ray of sunlight coming through the clouds, that was the sun "drawing up water" for more rain on down the road.
Something else they used to say was that when you saw particular trees "turning" their leaves to show their lighter undersides, that meant it was going to rain some time in the next 3 days. That one I've found to be pretty accurate.
.