In The Rain in Madison Square Park

It’s been raining a lot in NYC for the past couple of weeks.  This has caused NYCity Mama to get somewhat creative in the things she and the boys do during the day.  Luckily there is always something going on at the different public libraries throughout the city.  Mama tends to venture to other neighborhoods just for a change in scenery,  at times the just go to the bookstore, or museums.  But with all the rain, it seems that all those activities inside aren’t enough to get rid of the desire to do things outside.  So, more than once, Mama has settled with just getting wet.

Today was such a day.  The forecast promised rained, and it had already been drizzling on and off.  Mama had an event at the ever fun-tastic Apple seeds and was excited to take the kids with her.

They had a great time at Apple seeds, the play area is big, and colorful, and tons of fun.  The boys were the last to be picked up from the reserved play area they had for the event, and it took her a little while to get them out.  Eventually, she got them out by taking them through the gift shop and getting them little toys to play with.  She rushed out, realizing way too late that she had left her 2.5 year old’s shoes behind.  It started to drizzle, but as they were about to enter the train station someone told them that the uptown trains weren’t working.  At that point the rain started coming down, hard.  Mama started getting frustrated, but then she looked down at her boys, and neither of them cared.  They were so distracted by the little toys that the heavy rain had no effect on them at all.

So, Mama took a deep breath and headed over to Madison Square Park, to walk around, in the rain, and take some pictures while the boys played and splashed around in the puddles.  People hurrying by stared, some smiling watching them as they laughed at the joy of getting wet.  Her 3.5 year even sat down next to a lady who had an umbrella and tried to encourage her to come out from underneath it and join him in play. (She gently refused).

It was great to walk through the uncrowded park, and she did see that there would a few people who also didn’t mind being in the rain at all, these were the happy souls standing on the very, very short line in front of the often ridiculously busy Shake Shack (shame, had she planned it better, she wouldn’t have eaten so much at her event).  As a matter of fact, she’s never had a shake from this location, even though it is the original, because the lines are always so long! Thank goodness for Shake Shack on Columbus Ave!

They also took some time to sit down for a bit and watch the people working around the stage that had been set up for Madison Square Music, which are concerts that happen every Wednesday night till August 5th (Mama can’t wait to see The Jimmies on June 30 as part of Kid Fest). It seemed for a moment as if it weren’t raining at all, there was a quietness brought from the rain, which inspired Mama to close her eyes and enjoy it.

Mama has always loved getting caught in the rain.  When she was very, very young she lived with an aunt in the poor rural countryside of Puerto Rico.  They lived in a cinder block home, with no running water, dirt floors, and a tin roof. Her aunt would bring in water and pour it into a bathing tin and this is where she and her sister would bathe.  But when it rained, they would both go out and “shower” with the water pouring out of the drainage pipe her aunt had installed for such occasions or just by standing in their muddy garden letting the rain pour on her. She remembers these times as being some of the happiest from her childhood.  As a teenager then living in a troubled home in the Dominican Republic, she would escape to the roof of her father’s palacious size home when it rained and she would lift up her face and close her eyes, imagining the rain was washing away this sad, lonely existence and allow a better one to surface. It was in those instances, at that time, when she felt most at peace.

Sitting there in Madison Square Park, letting the rain soak her, her children, and all they carried with them, it seemed those years were someone else’s life rather than her own past, but yet the rain, and seeing the joy in her children’s faces as they played in it reminded her of both the poor little girl in PR, and the sad teenager in DR, who found freedom and refuge in the cool drops that fell from the sky, and though she knows that that life is nothing like what her children have experienced in theirs, she was glad to see that they were, like her, able to really appreciate and enjoy it.

As the heavy rain starting becoming a soft drizzle, they got up and started making their way back home, dripping wet, with squeaky shoes (those who had any), and a big smile on their faces talking about what fun all that was.

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Tags: NY Parks, nyc
Posted in Aquariums/Parks/Zoos | 4 Comments »