Well, I’m from the Midwest. You don’t have thunderstorms in California, not like you do in the Midwest. I think people in other states don’t understand. Our thunder in the Midwest is so loud it shakes the windows, shakes the house, shakes the floors, almost like an earthquake. As a young person, of course this terrified me. And I’d go dive under the bed.
One day my grandmother kind of pulled me out from under the bed and said, “Well, you know it is perfect day to go make thunder cake.” And I kind of said, “What’s that?” And she got the ingredients out and this meant we had to do different things to get the ingredients. The chocolate and the flour were kept out in the dry shed which really wasn’t that far from the house. But to a child, this is the last mile of your life to go out there and get that, especially when all those clouds are coming in and we hear the thunder and see the lightening. She would have me do it. I did it anyway. Did you know it’s scientific that when you count slowly, when you hear the thunder, that’s actually how many miles away the storm is? So, we would do the countdown as the storm was getting closer.
So, she had me go in that shed. She stood there. I mean, she didn’t leave me alone. I was afraid because there were spiders and things in there and I just didn’t want to go in there. But I’d get the little bag of flour and grab the little thing of chocolate and she had me climb a trellis to get some tomatoes and go get milk. And we had a cow that kicked. She didn’t make me milk the cow but I stood there while she was milking and I was afraid of her. I went to get eggs from a hen. I don’t know if you can see it, but I still have a scar right here. Because that hen one day grabbed me right here and then they hit you with their wings. I was afraid of that chicken.
At any rate, when we got into the house and put all the ingredients together, she said, “Well, you know, all of the things you did today means you’re very brave.” And I said, “No, I’m not. I’m scared to death.” She said, “Yes, but you faced all your fear.” And that’s when she made me realize that thunder was only a noise. That’s all it is.
