I don’t really know just why but rainy days can get a person into a glum mood. You know, when the weather has been on a warm and dry streak and almost every day is a day when you can get outside and enjoy just whatever it is you are doing. It could be going on a trip or just working around the old home place. It is just a great time to enjoy the world we live in.
As a little boy I really hated rainy days. I would watch some television but it just felt like all that I had been doing had been taken out of play and I couldn’t do because it had rained and it was wet or it was raining on a constant pace. The proceeding was just making your day worse and worser. I mean just why should good weather be wasted on wet rainy days? When you are little you are pretty much trapped into you home and we all know that means we have to do what our mom says. Do I have to remind you all that what moms ordered on rainy days are in no way fun? To put it bluntly a rainy day for a kid is boring!
Now I know this from experience I guess since I was the only kid my age on Fruit Ridge until I was about to enter the fourth grade. That was when my prayers were answered and there were boys added to my neighborhood to be around. Yup the neighborhood expanded when Mr. Marshall and his wife built a home at the intersection of Bolender and Houser Roads which was exactly three fourths of a mile from my driveway. I just can’t explain how happy I was to have received two boys to whom I could play with and exchange thoughts with. I had been trying with the old farmers in the neighborhood but it wasn’t working out too well. But with Herb and Charlie Marshall I struck up a bond that is still in place even to this day.
So when a rainy day would drop in on us and try to ruin the day I had these two guys to go to. Between them myself and if it was summer when my cousin Walt was up for the summer we would always come up with an idea that would entertain us. If it were raining or rainy and we were at my house we would go to our big ole barn on the hill and there was a lot that could occupy our time with bales of hay, tobacco sticks and baling twine that either separate or together we could come up with something to entertain us for sure.
On the other hand if we were all over at their place we had that club house Herb, Charlie and I had built where we could retreat to. I think we always were pleased on days like this as it showed us just how solid we really had built our club house. The roof didn’t leak and unless it was bitter cold we were comfortable in what was our place. (When you are a kid it is almost impossible to call a square inch your territory.) In our club house on rainy days we would play cards and read and most of all and this was something Herb and Charlie would deliver to this farm boy and that was they would go to Cincinnati when their mom would take her work in for delivery. When they got to go they would go by a book stand and buy the most current issue of Mad Magazine and any books issued from the same publishers that would contain the name of Mad..
Here was probably my first exposure to the city on a level that I could understand.
The magazines were something I had not seen up to that date and yet as I read it I saw the humor and would laugh and the wait for the next time they would go to Cincinnati. I don’t know if the magazine was that funny but it was so very different than anything I had ever seen before and yes it did bring a smile to the face. So in my opinion it couldn’t be too bad. Along with the Mad Magazines they also would shop at the Army Surplus. Again here was another area I knew nothing about but was eager to learn about.
They always made certain I knew when they were headed to town and we would talk about what was wanted and needed and I tried my best to chip in as much as I could money wise for these items as I knew they weren’t free and I was probably short in contributing. So on their returns from the city they would bring army cots, bayonets and a utility belt so we could fasten our official army surplus canteens to. (They looked so awesome but where they hung on your belt was a wet spot as they leaked just as little.)
I think the reason I have mentioned the prior information was that on those rainy days was when we would gather and go over all of the treasures they had come home with. The club house was where we stored our field gear. In that building that we had constructed just for us was where we kept the things that were just for us. So on a rainy day we had much to cover
Before Herb and Charlie had arrived in my neighborhood I had little to look forward to on a level of my age only. But after they moved in my life took on a different way of seeing things, Along with being a lot of fun to be with they both were so very smart and I don’t think they did it on purpose but the level of how we played elevated to a higher level of knowledge and better than that they made it a lot of fun!
To have more fun on the days when it rained and as you are enjoying it as you are learning was a new thing I had never known. So how could a cloudy day be misunderstood for a bad day when I was enjoying understanding? These were the best of my times.
Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and loves to share stories about his youth and other topics. If you are interested in reading more of his stories they can be found in his books ‘There are Places to Remember” and’ Memories ARE from the Heart.” He may be reached at houser734@yahoo.com or mail to P.O. Box 213 Bethel, Ohio 45106.