Please Don’t Rain! Please Don’t Rain!

It is four days before Christmas. Today is winter’s solstice, the first day of winter. I bet you think this post will be about one of those. No, sir or madam. I am taking us back to May of 1976! I was about to turn 24 and I was about to meet a woman I would share 24 years of my life with. But first, some background.

Does anyone remember AMC, American Motors Corporation?  I forget when they went bankrupt, but I owned an AMC Gremlin in 1976.  The Gremlin was much derided in its time but I understand that it is now a favorite of collectors. I liked my Gremlin, aqua marine in color, and easy to drive. It was a wonderful car, except for its windshield wipers! More on that later.

So I get to know Janice in a Business Math class at LCCC. We got along really well and our sense of humor was a perfect match.  It turns out that she was two years behind me at good old Slatington High School, but we didn’t run in the same circles. By the end of the semester I gathered the courage to ask her out. The date was arranged and I was supposed to pick her up in my AMC Gremlin. Uh oh.

Remember, it was a fine car except for those windshield wipers. The thing is…the wipers would go up…but stay up! I had to reach out the window and give them a little shove so they would go down again. Of course, they would come right back up, but stay there,again, until I reached out the window and shove them again!

So the morning of our first date I check the weather forecast. 80% chance of rain this evening, the evening of the date.  Nooooo. How embarrassing this may be!? I am to pick her up at 6 PM. Still no rain. So far so good. I leave my house at 5:45, still no rain. I make my way up Main Street saying to myself “Please don’t rain. Please don’t rain!”.  Guess what. Ten minutes after I pick her up, it starts to rain. Actually, it starts to pour!  I do what I have to do with the wipers, explaining why I am doing this at the same time.  She found it hilarious and we laughed and laughed. She even helped me wring the rainwater from my sleeve before we went into the movie theater.

I’m not sure why I am remembering this on winter’s solstice. I do remember telling a client on Wednesday night that 95% of the things we worry about never happen anyway.  I guess this little tale proves that sometimes they do.  And even, then, you can just make the best of it.

Happy winter’s solstice everyone. Each day, after today, the sun is out a little longer. Spring is on the way!