Funny, I don't remember rainy days when I was a kid. Granted we lived in Ritzville on the dry side of Washington State (east of the Cascade Mountains), but I have no memories of ever playing in the rain. Until my paternal grandfather retired and Dad moved our family out to the farm, we lived across the street from the City Park and the swimming pool. Down the street just a half block were the tennis courts and a few feet further on the other side was the High School.
The swimming pool was a great incentive to Sister Sherry and I to get our chores done early so that we could be over there when the doors opened at one. A good many of my memories have to do with the long afternoons and later evenings, spent in or at the swimming pool.
We learned to roller skate in our Grandfather Kubik's basement. In those days -- before they put in the fancy court surface -- the PTA (I think) sponsored skating in the evenings at the tennis courts. They would put coins in the Pay-for-lights boxes and plug in a record player so that we would have music to skate to. None of us had special skate shoes. What we had were wheels with with an ankle strap and metal clamps that fastened onto your regular shoes (leather ones -- none of us wore tennis shoes). The front of the wheels could be extended to make them fit larger shoes. There was a skate key you wore around your neck that you used to tighten the clamps. It was a bit of a disaster if you mis-placed your skate key as it seemed like the clamps always needed tightening...
Later when they built the new grade school, we used to skate on the expanse of asphalt around the playground. Even the country kids would bring their skate wheels to school so that could skate during recess.
But as I think of all the things we did as kids, I cannot remember it raining. I do remember the snow, shoveling sidewalks and making snowmen, but no rain. Memory is a funny thing.
