The summer camp rain-dance

I spent every summer of my entire childhood up in the Berkshires at sleep away camp.  I am forty-six now but at times the memories still wash over me like a warm familiar blanket. It could be a dream in the middle of the night where in my mind I am a 12 year-old camper again. It could be a song I hear that takes me back or a smell or watching my own kids play travel soccer. But one of the most vivid memories I have of summer camp is triggered every time it rains. Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall and strong winds never fail to bring back one of the most remarkable events I ever experienced at camp.

I was no more than ten or eleven years old. It had been raining for days on end. It was like something right out of the Noah's Ark story. The skies were dark, the rains just kept pounding and pounding, the sports fields were flooded, the camp was a muddy mess. We had been cooped up inside with various indoor activities for days and we were going stir crazy. The bell for lunch sounded and we all put on ponchos and boots and ran through the storm to the dining hall. We ate our macaroni and cheese while the storm beat down on the roof above us and the strong winds pushed up against the windows.

About halfway through the meal, this little girl named Miranda, who was probably my age or even a year younger, got up and went to the front of the dining hall. She whispered something in our camp director's ear and after looking at her for a second he quieted us down and told us that Miranda was going to walk us through a raindance. We had no clue what he was talking about but out of sheer curiosity we listened. He then turned to this little girl and told her to go ahead. Without a hint of hesitation or nervousness, Miranda put her index finger to her mouth to make the sign for quiet. There were close to 600 people in that dining hall and at that moment all you heard was the beating of the rain on the rooftop.

She asked us to follow her lead as she slowly walked around the room rubbing her hands together. Table by table kids and counselors alike began to rub their hands until the entire dining hall was doing it. The sound of 1,200 hands being rubbed together in that room made the distinct sound of a light drizzle. Miranda then started to snap her fingers and as everyone in that dining hall did the same the sound of that drizzle soon gave way to the sound of a light summer rain. Miranda took center stage again and this time slapped her hands against her thighs as she walked around the room. By now we were all under her hypnotic spell and obediently we did the same. The acoustics in that dining hall took those pounding hands and turned the sound into a heavy rainfall inside that room. Miranda raced back to the front of the room and this time while still slapping her hands against her thighs she also pounded her feet against the room's wide plank wood floor. Her loyal followers all did the same and soon our manmade summer rain had graduated to a full fledged thunderstorm. It was incredible. If you closed your eyes you'd swear it was pouring and thundering in that massive room. Miranda raced back to the front and this time slowly reversed the process. She went from the feet pounding back to the hand slapping then to the finger snapping then back to just the hand rubbing and finally back to nothing but that eerie silence. Only this time, the silence was complete. The storm that had been raging outside just a few short moments ago had stopped, the clouds had begun to lift and in the distance you could just barely make out the sun trying to break through the cloud cover. Miranda gave a quick bow, smiled and asked permission to walk back to her seat.