Thursday, August 28, 2008

High Priority!




The smell of rain floods me back to a happy memory in my life. I have always loved the sound of raindrops falling on my Grandmother's tin roof. The breeze when sitting on her front porch and dancing with the raindrops falling into the river beneath my feet.
Although, I have always loved the rain, the roar of thunder is another story.
I distinctly remember the scene. The old brown house on the farm- the one that my aunt Lisa would scale down the side from her two-story window to sneak out at night, or at least that’s what she told us. It was the house of my Dunbar Grandparents along with a couple of my mother's siblings still living there.
I was about the age of a kindergartner when my dad was sitting on the front porch with the lightning flashing and thunder screaming. Being the ever-vocal child that I still am today- I had to warn my daddydo because the 'lightnings' were coming to get him! I opened the door and with all protest, I began to explain why he was to come inside that instant! My sweet daddydo in all of his grace, simply told me to come out there with him. Me- out there- where the storm is brewing- WHAT! But because I trusted him, I crawled up on his lap and he explained how far away the lightning was and taught me count "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, etc..." to tell how far away the lightning was. He said 'Just watch it out there, Isn't it pretty?' And for the first time, I thought a storm was beautiful and peaceful.

Thankfully, this is one of those moments in time that I can look back to in the Rolodex of my mind and say, "AH, I remember that!- That's a good one! Let's mark this as 'High Priority!' and pull it out again later!" When I smell the rain, see the lightning, and hear the thunder, I can close my eyes and find myself sitting on my daddy's lap counting- "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi" and think, "Daddy, that one is 3 miles away!"
To this day, I LOVE it when I am at home and a good thunderstorm is brewing because somehow I am a 5 year old again enjoying time with my daddydo!

1 comment:

Amy said...

OMG.....this one NEEDS to be on a scrapbook page!! What an awesome memory. That sounds so much like stories Maw tells about her Daddy....he was always like that with them.