A RAINY NIGHT IN MASSACHUSETTS

April showers may bring May flowers, but if there’s one month in which people DON’T want rain, it’s June.  Well, maybe an occasional rainy Monday or Wednesday in June is O.K. - the lawns and flowers need the rain, but it’s certainly not O.K. to have June rain on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays.  Couples plan that perfect wedding day months (years?) in advance, and they want the weather to be perfect.  Most high school graduations happen in early June- and everybody wants perfect weather for those, as well.  

As I write it’s a rainy Saturday morning which followed a rainy Friday.  I was supposed to be in Canton helping my sister with her yard sale which was planned for today.  Due to the RAIN, the yard sale is postponed until June 17.  Back to the high school graduation topic, I read an article in the newspaper about contingency plans for so many high school graduations planned for this weekend.  I couldn’t help but think of my own high school graduation in early June of 1972.  Our graduation from Canton High School was planned for a Thursday evening... (I know, I know, what high school would hold a graduation on a Thursday night?), but this was 1972 and it was not all that uncommon.  On Thursday it POURED rain.  The graduation was postponed until Friday night.  We were all kind of disappointed, but putting it off one more night was not a big deal.

The graduation exercises were held outdoors in front of the school on Washington Street, Canton.  Temporary bleachers and folding chairs were erected for the occasion.  One thing was missing:  one of those big tents like Framingham State College uses. There was no tent.  As we filed in to the traditional “Pomp & Circumstance” music the weather was partly cloudy and pretty pleasant.  One of the toughest “coolest” kid’s fathers was shooting home movies of him and you could tell he thought it was quite “uncool”.  I don’t know why I still remember that detail.  Maybe it symbolizes the quandary of that age where we were not really adults and not really kids but somewhere in the middle.  There were all the usual speeches- in fact, I think there was a (gasp) prayer!  Well, this WAS 1972.  About a third of the way through the ceremony some unexpected guests showed up:  raindrops.  No, it wasn’t HARD rain, but isolated drops.  In about five minutes, we had steady but fine rain.   Our principal was Mr. Joyce, a gray-headed guy of around fifty who was a chain smoker and had a voice about as appealing as the voice of the Lost in Space robot.  In that “Danger, Will Robinson” voice of his, Joyce said,

“I think I will ask the graduates if we should move the ceremony inside.”

In unison, each of us shouted, “No!”

“Well, you heard them.  We will continue outside.” he replied.

Five minutes later, the skies opened up to a “Noah’s ark” style of HEAVY rain.  

“I think we’d bet...”  before Mr. Joyce could finish his sentence, pandemonium broke out.  You had the graduating seniors in their caps and gowns, the parents, faculty, guests, and old ladies (including my poor 84-year-old grandmother) running for the school auditorium.  In another ten minutes we were on stage SOAKED in our caps and gowns.  Many parents (including my own and my grandmother) ended up standing- there were far too few seats available for this crowd.  In the confusion, the diplomas all got mixed up.  Everybody was handed someone else’s diploma.  After the ceremony, we all had to “kibbutz” and make sure everybody got their correct diplomas.

I can relate to Chris Rock’s childhood on “Everybody Hates Chris” because I was very uncool in high school, but I’m thought of very differently today.  I’m the only “clergyperson” of my class.  At our twenty-fifth reunion in 1997, I was asked to read the list of classmates who’d passed away, and to open the reunion in prayer.  As I did, I prayed that as it had rained on our graduation, God would rain His blessings on our reunion.  That evening, many of my classmates made a point to talk to me and compliment my prayer.  A few days after our graduation, the famous Watergate break-in took place,  but I’ll always remember June of 1972 for the rainy graduation.  You know, in a crazy way it’s a much more special memory than a sunny graduation day would have been.  So, for those of you who had your graduations messed up by rain this week, “don’t sweat it”!

“...he...sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”  (from Matthew 5:45)