WE ALL have a tendency to romanticise about our childhood, especially the memories of those glorious summer days when the school holidays stretched endlessly before us.
As I write this, the rain is pelting down outside my office window. It’s hard to believe that July is now upon us. Or is it?
You see, when I was a kid, summer wasn’t like this. It was so hot that you could see the heat mist rise from the road and the tarmac melted while we played tennis on the streets.
We seemed to live at the beach; the mile-long walk broken by pitstops at crowded shops where we cooled ourselves down with cans of fizzy drinks and stocked up on penny sweets for the rest of the journey.
How many times have you heard such nostalgic stories about bygone summers trotted out by our generation? Memories are precious but can often be misleading; the mind can sometimes gloss over the bad ones.
That’s not to say we didn’t get some cracking summer days back then, similar to the recent hot spell we experienced in June. But we also had plenty of the wet stuff as well.
I recall one particular school tour in the 1970s where we gazed at the beauty of the Botanic Gardens through the rain-flecked, misted up windows of a bus. Earlier that day, a visit to Dublin Zoo was ruined when all the animals sought shelter indoors from the extreme weather.
Countless camping weekends in summer had to be abandoned due to torrential rain and howling gales.
Who remembers eating soggy sandwiches during a summer project trip to Skerries or Bray and having to sit in damp clothes on the long bus journey home?
I recall one particular family holiday to Galway in 1981 when it rained for six days solid. My father used to joke that Galway was where the rain was made – and we believed him. We went to the local church every day to pray for good weather. Our prayers were finally answered on the last day of the holiday; a rare glimpse of sunshine allowing us to venture out to the Aran Islands.
Don’t think for a second that I’m a global warming denier, like that Danny Healy Rae fella or the former reality show star who’s now in charge of America. I tend to take the word of scientists and experts over these two boyos when it comes to the realities of climate change.
I’m just saying that it’s time we faced up to the harsh fact that Ireland is a rainy country. It’s what makes us so green, if that’s any consolation. Hopefully, we’ll get enough good days to dust off the barbecue over the next two months.
Just bring a jacket.