We were talking this a little while ago, during the midst of the thunderstorm, that there was something very reminiscent of childhood when it storms in the morning. Not so much the lightning but the rumble and vibrations of thunder. We like the echo as well as it seems to roll on forever.
We were watching the History Channel over the weekend and with the 4th of July coming up it is 149 years ago this 4th that the battle of Gettysburg came to its climax and Pickett's charge and all that senseless gallantry and wasted courage. War brings out the best and worst in man. Anyway, prior to Pickett's charge, Lee had lined up a huge group of artillery to fire on the Union's positions to soften them up for the charge. The sheer number of cannons exceeded anything ever in the history of continent and supposedly the ground shook and the sound made it to Philadelphia.
My father fought in the South Pacific and remembers being on a ship before the landings and having all the battleships (seemingly) on earth go ker-pow all at once and it striking him that there was never on earth such an infernal noise. To the day he died he said he never could hear a rumble of thunder without thinking about that event.
I think about thunder in my mind's eye at a lake cabin in northern Minnesota 50 years ago, not being able to go fishing because sure as shooting we would get hit by lightning, and it being so dark we had to turn on the kerosene lamps as there was no electricity except that in the air.
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