Growly Night

Introduction

This is a Seven Days In Excavation from August 2019 and it is getting attention on my blog you can see here, which has just passed 1.3 million page views.

I included a piece from Walt Disney's "Fantasia" that my granddaughter has just seen for the first time, but the "Night On Bare Mountain" sequence is a great embodiment of thunder and lightning in a storm.

It also made me think about how my grandma gave me a reason for the thunder and started to wonder what other reasons people give to children and others who do not know the reason for thunder and lightning.

In ancient mythology we see Thor and Zeus throwing thunderbolts to cause destruction and attack enemies.

I know in some storms that we have had recently I could believe that some angry deity was casting down lightning bolts and poring rain down as the thunder rumbles and with climate change these are going to happen much more often, but I doubt any real attempt will be made to do something about it until The White House, The Houses of Parliament or Buckingham Palace get hit when they have politicians and royalty inside.

The piece below refers to a single day in 2019.

Growly Night

There's thunder, lightning and rain. It's getting dark early. I'm amazed at how accurate the weather information app is though I always look out the window to confirm what's happening. Another lightning flash, another roll of thunder.

Today when mowing the lawn there was a small short shower, but now we have the real stuff. The positive is that I don't have to water the garden. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to walk into work without being forced to get a bus.

I wasn't going to post today but the image of "growly night" just seemed to be something worth capturing and recording.

My grandma used to say thunder was the angels playing then pin bowling, which is a fairish analogy.

So given that I've nothing really to say I'll share an appropriate piece of music, "Night on Bare/Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky possibly rearranged by Rimsky-Korsakov and featured in Disney's "Fantasia" which he created to teach children about classical music and it is largely successful with stunning animation.

"Night on Bare Mountain" was also rejigged as "Night on Disco Mountain" on the soundtrack of "Saturday Night Fever"

So enjoy.....

Conclusion

Although I did not include it in the Seven Days In post I liked "Night On Disco Mountain" from "Saturday Night Fever" by David Shire. It is a little Stars On Forty Five but still great fun. I found a piece that uses the Disney footage for the video, but I think Mussorgsky's music more than holds its own against Shire's disco beat.

So I wonder what your parents and grandparents told you about the reasons for thunder and lightning.

When I researched online almost all the explanations were real and scientific. A child wants something magical and spectacular, not a drab scientific explanation, they will get that when they get to school.

It is a sad fact that many adults today dismiss science in favour of made-up ridiculous theories that they find online.

I think I made up a lot of stories for my daughters, including my grandma's explanation, and no doubt I and they will do the same for my granddaughter.

Thank you so much for reading this article and I would love to know how you explain thunder and lightning to children, so please leave them in the comments, it will give me something to use.