"Bag on Head"

When I was young, my parents drove a 1965 Pontiac LeMans Convertible. It was my Dad's first car. It was the car that he used to pick my mom up for their first date. It is the car they used for their "getaway" car from their wedding in 1972. This car, which is an entire story it itself, still sits in our garage. They drove it into the ground and when it no longer worked, they kept it. One of my clearest memories from when I was young was a huge summer rainstorm. My brother and I were our running errands at the grocery store with my Dad. As we left the store, the skies opened up and it started to pour. It just rained and rained. My brother was sitting in the kid seat of the grocery cart and I was in the cart itself.

My dad started to frantically try to get the convertible roof back up. The thing wouldn't budge. He started to curse at it. Pulling on the huge roof, he strained against the heavy material. My brother and I were too young to be of any use. We simply just sat there in the grocery cart while the warm rain fell. Finally, my dad just gave up and put us in the car. He handed us each a plastic grocery bag to put over our heads to protect us from the rain and we drove home in the pouring rain with the convertible down.

I remember clearly sitting in the basket of that cart and my young dad trying to fix the roof of the car, that they most likely, couldn't afford to fix or replace. I don't remember arriving home or when it stopped raining but what a thrill for a little girl! First being outside in the rain and then driving home in a car while you could still feel the rain!

I was reminded of this story on Saturday. Seren and I went for a quick errand to Babies R Us to purchase some diapers. When we left the store, the skies opened wide. I sprinted to the car, with her on my left hip, and a box of 162 size 5 cruisers diapers on my left. She said to me, as she is prone to do after her bath, "Hair all wet."

The problem was that I had to return to the store next to it to finish our shopping. I threw the diapers in the car and pulled out a large, black "Hefty" trash bag that was in the car of my trunk. I asked Seren to hold one side of it and I draped it over her head, then mine and I held down the other corner of the bag. We ran like this through the rain back to the stores. She loved it!

We did our shopping without a care in the world. We heard the rain fall on the ceiling of the store. We were safe and dry. Seren enjoyed JoAnne's fabric, stopping to explore the ribbon and the colorful fabric. She identified many colors as we walked, hand in hand down the many aisles. I realized that I wasn't rushing for once. And was actually relaxed. It was great! My shoulders lowered a bit and we just took the whole store in. The rain hadn't stopped by the time we left, despite our intentional dawdling. So we sprinted for the car in much the same way we arrived. I put her safely in her car seat and made sure she was in there good while the lower half of me got drenched in the rain.

We returned home to our neighborhood. It wasn't raining. Just a sprinkle.

I was maneuvering the diapers and the other items we bought as we came through the door. I was a bit flustered by the wet shoes, the wet jackets and the wet clothes. Seren, however, had a story to tell Dada. Sam greeted us and she proudly said to him, a smile on her face and excitement in her voice, "Dada! Bag on head!"

It was a good adventure. Thank goodness for plastic trash bags.


picture from http://www.pairadicecruisers.org