2024, books, Fantasy, Mysteries, Nature, Weather

Bowled Over

29 Comments

Around Christmas I decided that I wanted to re-read the Inspector Gamache series of books by Louise Penny.  They were favorites of mine when I first re-read them and I enjoyed the tv shows although I wasn’t happy they cancelled after the first season.  Short sighted.

I’m on the third book right now, listening to it on CD in the car.  Last week there was a huge thunderstorm in the book and Louise wrote one of the characters as saying that their mother had explained thunder as “angels bowling”.  This caught my attention because this is exactly what my mother told me about thunder when I was a kid.

As an adult I know in my brain that thunder is caused by the shockwave of air that expands rapidly around a lightning bolt.  But it’s way too easy to remember bowling angels or the Zeus in Fantasia orchestrating a huge storm. 

What kinds of stories were you told as a child to explain natural phenomenon?

29 thoughts on “Bowled Over”

  1. This isn’t a natural phenomenon, but every time I was with my dad and we saw this same decrepit guy walking around in downtown Luverne, my dad would say “That’s the guy who planned the Brinks robbery”. I believed him, of course.

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  2. Something I heard a lot as a kid but never had explained to me by Mom or Dad was “It’s raining cats and dogs.” And I guess that’s sort of a reverse explanation.

    I think I’ve actually heard in the news recently that it can “rain” certain fish, maybe frogs(?) during a hurricane. Another reason my wife refuses to move to a hurricane state. 🙂

    Chris in Owatonna

    **BSP** Here’s all you need to know about the Rosemount Writers’ Festival and Book Fair tomorrow at the Steeple Center on Robert Trail adjacent to the Robert Trail Library:

    https://hometownsource.com/sun_thisweek/free/rosemount-writers-festival-and-book-fair-is-march-16/article_17271466-dccf-11ee-91cc-6f5afc776034.html

    **END BSP**

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  3. I have no memories of either of my parents explaining anything to me – I’m sure they must have, and will try to think of what I might have asked. How odd!

    I remember being on a playground swing with son Joel when he was about 8, and he asked me what God was. We weren’t attending any church at the time, and I remember thinking, after fumbling around with some lame answer, “Wow, I’d better put some thought into this!”

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    1. When YA was still a baby, I subscribed to a couple of different adoption magazines. I was so very lucky to come across an article that started out as “how to explain to your kids that they’re adopted”, but ended up also listing several other questions that most kids ask as they’re starting to figure out the world. The article didn’t say have an answer, but did say think about these cause they’ll be coming! 

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  4. The only thing that springs to mind is once seeing the sunlight filtered through the clouds in rays, and my mom saying that was “the sun drawing water.” I’ve never heard that phrase before, and I don’t know if it was a Norwegianism that she learned from her parents, or what, but it is interesting and evocative.

    –Crow Girl

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    1. First of all, that should have been “I’d never heard…” Second, I just did an internet search and it turns out to be a common American phrase. So I have learned something today!

      –Crow Girl

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  5. That’s a great question. I can’t think of any answers at the moment…

    But one of life’s big mysteries happen when I was 18 or 19. Mom was concerned about me talking so much about a lady at the theater who really became my second mom. I insisted we were “just friends”. Mom said “That’s what your sister kept saying!” and she stormed out. All I could think was ‘Which sister?? What’s going on?? What is she talking about??’

    Took me a few more months to do the math and figure out one nephew wasn’t quite born far enough into wedlock.

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  8. OT: I’ve signed up for Jacque and Lou’s Caring Bridge site, and I receive an update whenever Jacque posts a new journal entry. I doubt if she’ll have time to check in here for a while, and I don’t think I should post the link publicly, but if any of you want the CB link, email me…

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  9. Well, I’m not sure this is a natural phenomenon or not, but I bit my fingernails when I was a really young kid. I remember a teacher talking about biting your fingernails and I got the idea from that. I had never thought of it before, but it suddenly sounded like something to try. I quickly developed a life-long habit.

    My paternal grandmother couldn’t be described as a kind woman. I don’t think she had much patience for the behaviors of little kids. She just expected a mini-adult pretty much right out of the womb. She didn’t like my fingernail biting at all. She told me that all those fingernails would stick themselves inside the wall of my stomach. They would never go away and it would be painful in the future. I visualized my stomach as a cavernous space taking up my entire abdomen, covered with tiny fingernails embedded in a pink stomach wall. Nightmares! I cried and lost sleep. I got up and put my socks on my hands to try to control my habit. My mom asked me why I was wearing socks on my hands, and I told her. She explained that it probably wasn’t like that and it wouldn’t hurt me, but it was an unhealthy and unattractive habit. There was nothing anyone could do to stop me after that, and I bit my nails for years. I still have a problem if there’s a hangnail.

    Is the power of suggestion a natural phenomenon?

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  10. i take Ari to piano on mondays

    this week it was lighter out as we came out at 6:15 and I told him some guy waved his magic wand over the weekend and now it will be darker in the morning and lighter at night and the days will get longer. I later texted his mom so she’d be aware on the newly proclaimed magic trick by some guy. The next morning Ari had to be woken up and his morning easing into the world was shortened. His mom said to him that it’s amazing how the time flies and he informed her that some guy waved his magic wand on Saturday and that’s what is going on . She was glad to have been pre informed about this phenomenon

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  12. Good Evening Baboons,

    Krista and Barb are correct–I was busy with Lou’s care today. I am eating supper with a rare glass of wine, after running up to VS’ house to get PIE. Today Lou, who is confused and disoriented away from home, looked at me and said, “Say, did you get that pie from the party?” Despite all his confusion he could remember that we did not go to the party, and he wants his pie. I thought, ” I guess the essential Lou is still in there!” Tomorrow morning I will post on Caring Bridge the plan which came together today. I am satisfied with it. 

    Now, to answer the question. I used to hear my Grandmother say, “I got pregnant every time Vernon hung his pants on the bedpost.” This was curious to me, because by the time I was in the picture, Grandma slept in a separate bedroom due to Grandpa’s snoring. There was no bedpost in the room she slept in. Hmmmm. What does this have to do with pregnancy? It took years to figure it out, but I did, finally. But in the natural world, are there bedposts?

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  15. I remember cicadas singing in the summertime, and the adults called them heat bugs. Supposedly the singing meant it was going to be hot the next day. The arrival of the cicadas was around August, so they were a reasonably reliable predictor of heat, though I later found they can certainly hatch out in cool weather too.

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