Galoshes and Game Shows

“When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads.”

                                                Rain - 

                                                The Beatles 

Oh, the rainy day - years ago it was a child’s natural enemy and the parents worst nightmare. Today, kids have no idea how good they have it thanks to tablets, smart phones, cable TV, and social media.  For them, a rainy day is just another excuse to lay around in their underwear and choose from an almost endless entertainment  buffet.  

Not so in my time. Back then, it was pretty much an all day survival challenge, where only the strongest survived - or those willing to take a nap. 

Rainy weekdays during the summer were the worst. The television only had three channels, which were almost exclusively daytime soap operas. If not for the occasional game show, TV was unwatchable for a kid. So, Lets Make A Deal or The Match Game was about the only relief  I had for my boredom.

Eventually, all my whining caused mom to head to the closet and begin breaking out the board games. It happened every time.  

“I’ve got an idea,” she said, flashing the front of the game like an infomercial. “Why don’t you play Chutes and Ladders with your sister?”

“I don’t want to play Chutes and Ladders with Kay. She cheats.”

“Oh honey, you just need to explain the rules to her.”

“She knows the rules. She just cheats to make me mad.” 

She pulled out another box. “Hey, here’s Monopoly!”

“Mom, I don’t even know the rules to Monopoly.”  

She grabbed the final rectangular box from the shelf, and said, “Here’s Operation. What about this one?”  

“Well, the first thing is the batteries are dead. The second thing is Kay took all the little parts from the game and put them in her Malibu  Barbie Dreamhouse. I’m sooo bored.”

Her tone stiffened. “Well, if you can’t find something to do, I’ll find something for you.” That meant work. Even boredom was better than doing chores, so I backed down, headed to my bedroom, and re-read my latest cache of comic book. I suffered silently until about 7PM when The Munsters and The Beverly Hillbillies came on. 

Another thing: I find it unbelievable that in this day and time that school can be delayed or even cancelled because of stormy weather.  Thank you Doppler Radar.  It seems kinda wimpy. I hate to sound like an old man, but since I am, I’m gonna tell you this:  I never, ever recall school being canceled or delayed because of bad weather – other than snow, of course. We are from the south, you know. Nowadays, if the weather just looks scary, kids log in to their classes from home. That’s right - they attend school by watching an iPad while wearing a T shirt and underwear.  

If it was going to storm on a school day when I was in elementary school, I would’ve been outfitted with a yellow raincoat, a yellow hood, and galoshes. And if I was real lucky, my mom would drive me to the bus stop and wait until I got on the bus. But most of the time, she’d just pull up, open the car door, and say “It will be here in just a minute.”  Then, as I got out, she would say  sweetly, “You won’t melt!” And off I’d go, trudging through the monsoon in my rubber boots.  

By the time I boarded the bus, my raincoat hood would be half-blown off, my socks would be soaked from that puddle I’d stomped through, and I’d be sitting with a bunch of damp, miserable kids who smelled like wet dogs. But we toughed it out. Why? Because we had no choice, and we knew that even school was better than the boredom of our house. 

Of course, on a rainy school day, the playground was off-limits, which meant we had indoor recess - also known as Lord of The Flies - Gymnasium Edition.  The teachers and coaches hated  it  because all of our pent up energy exploded in that gym. Random games broke out everywhere -  dodge ball, chase, and even tackle football. Girls screamed and hollered. Once, several of us played “Who Can Spin Around in a Circle the Longest”, a bad game to play right after lunch. Just ask the janitor who had to clean up.  

I suppose I should take solace in the fact that my grandkids will never have to experience the trauma of a boring day at the home, or a soggy day of  school.  Lord knows we don’t need our little darlings getting emotionally scarred over things like this. 

Or even worse, being forced to play Chutes and Ladders with a younger sibling who cheats.