music
ambience thunderstorm, crickets
If you grew up in the country, then summer nights may bring to mind evocative memories in sounds. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Chasing and catching fireflies by the hundreds and putting them in jars until they became like glowing lanterns; and then waving them around as they cut through the sky’s inky blackness like shooting stars — well, that’s what Pulse of the Planet listener John Payton remembers from growing up in Indianapolis in the forties. It was a time for enjoying the simple pleasures of playing along a creek at nightfall, where the air was full with sounds of crickets. But an even more dramatic sound is permanently etched in John’s memory.
“I see big trees. I see the clouds rolling by. I hear the thunder shake the house. I see the lightning. You know we’d sit on the porch swing and just think God was moving house, or something upstairs with all the noises going on in the sky. And the thick grass. And sometimes running home from the park just down the street, with the storm coming down the street right behind us. We’d outrun the storm as it was coming to us ’cause you could just see the wall of rain coming, and run up on the porch steps with maybe few drops on it. And watch it come down in buckets of rain. Summer storms, of course, are warm and they’re fun and you’re outside and you get to enjoy them. And even if you got caught in it, it was fun because you would dry out pretty soon and it usually was humid anyhow, so it didn’t matter.”
Our thanks to listener John Payton.
To hear about our new CD, please visit pulseplanet.com. Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.