Rolling Thunder, by Ricky

As an 8 to 10-year-old boy living on a farm in central Minnesota, my 3½ year older uncle and I had to listen to the thunder that rolled across the rolling hills during rain storms. Many was the night when we had to sleep with the thunderous noise created by lightning strikes. As if that wasn’t enough, the flashes of lightning played havoc with the time it took us to fall asleep.

We were not overly scared of the lightning and thunder while in bed, or in the house. The farm-house we lived in had six lightning rods along the spine of the roof. My uncle and I slept together in a wire spring frame bed with metal head and foot-boards. We were well insulated from a direct strike to the house. At least, we believed we were safe from lightning. Now the storms that produced tornados, were another matter entirely.

On a side note, when I was 9¾-years old and sleeping in that bed, my uncle and I fondled each other once, two nights in a row. These events showed me the possibilities of male to male pleasurable activities. I am very fond of that bed.

J.K. Rowling receives thunderous applause at her presentations as did the first showing of Star Wars in Rapid City, South Dakota, which my spouse and I attended. As soon as the first space ship appeared traveling from the top towards the middle of the screen trying to escape the even larger ship chasing it, the fans of space movies began to applaud for about two minutes. Consequently, there was some dialog everyone missed.

North Vietnam and Laos received the fruits of Operation Rolling Thunder from 2 March 1965 until 2 November 1968. The effort was ultimately a failure as it did not achieve stated goals. See operation rolling thunder in Wikipedia for more details.

I have been seated in restroom stalls and often have heard “rolling thunder” from nearby stalls, and in all honesty, from my own as well.

Who can forget the rolling thunder of multiple bowling balls dropping to the lane and the subsequent crashing of the pins as they are knocked about. And, there is also the vibrating air as a railroad diesel powered engine, or two or three and sometimes four, pass by loud enough to be classified as rolling thunder (in my opinion).

Anyone who has witnessed in person the launch of a Saturn V rocket, carrying astronauts to the moon, could never forget the rolling thunder of the powerful engines pulsing across the water to the on-lookers 3-miles away.

© 13 November 2017

About the Author

I was born in June of 1948 in Los Angeles, living first in Lawndale and then in Redondo Beach. Just prior to turning 8 years old in 1956, I began living with my grandparents on their farm in Isanti County, Minnesota for two years during which time my parents divorced.

When united with my mother and stepfather two years later in 1958, I lived first at Emerald Bay and then at South Lake Tahoe, California, graduating from South Tahoe High School in 1966. After three tours of duty with the Air Force, I moved to Denver, Colorado where I lived with my wife and four children until her passing away from complications of breast cancer four days after the 9-11 terrorist attack.

I came out as a gay man in the summer of 2010. I find writing these memories to be therapeutic.

My story blog is TheTahoeBoy.Blogspot.com