Thunderstorms Are My Best Summer Memories

As a child summer was always magical for me. I loved those hot summer days playing in the backyard with my neighbors and cousins, eating snowballs and running through the sprinkler on the hose. Days without school seemed marvelously endless. But I especially loved the late summer thunderstorms that would kick up in evenings. They would come on unexpectedly, with only the heat lightning to give warning of their arrival.

We didn’t have central air conditioning when I was young, as a matter of fact my parents still don’t have it, and although we had window AC units we usually didn’t turn them on unless it was “hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk”. So we usually slept with our windows open to the still summer air. That was probably the best part.

My father would always run our big window fan in hopes of creating a much sought after breeze, and I could easily hear the trains at night; they would blow their whistles as they passed. And there was always traffic on the nearby highway. These were the sounds of summer.

I loved to lay in bed at night with the window open and listen to the thunder storms as the approached. The wind would begin and the trees would start to rustle. Then the cicadas would sing in the approaching storm, and pink lightning would ignite the sky. And then the rain would come; straight down, in warm showers. I would smell the rain; so warm and fresh. It made everything different, clean somehow.

My parent’s house had a metal roof and the sound of the summer rain on that roof will always mean home to me. I would lie in my bed staring out my bedroom window, feeling the storm induced breeze and think about all those important things children think about. I would be comforted by the sound and sleep would come.

To this day I love to see the summer sky light up with a heat storm. I’ll sit at our sliding glass door watching the thunder storm roll in. Although some storms can be scary, never do I feel frightened of a summer thunder storm. They are always beautiful and calming. And they always take me home again.

Maryann is the mom behind Matthew’s Puzzle, her blog about autism recovery, green living and everything in between.