"Jonathan Cook" wrote


I've had several similar experiences,

might as well add my anectdote to the listing: my eldest son, ash, my
second wife, and myself went on a fishing vacation through the northeast in
the late summer of 1980. one morning we fished the yellow breeches, near
carlisle, pa. ash and i were working a long, languid run while lane, my
wife, sat reading on the bank of the stream. we began to hear, faintly in
the distance, the rumbling of thunder. the visible sky held no ominous
cloud formations; just big, puffy cumulous here and there.
suddenly, my hair (which was quite long back then) rose right off my
neck and from around my ears. i had just an instant to turn towards lane
when, on the bank just above her, and maybe15 yards to her right, what
looked for all the world like a mortar round blew the **** up. bright flash
of light accompanied by a very loud "kaa-POW"! my boy and i ran to lane.
she was stunned, as if someone had slapped her really hard, and shaking like
a leaf, disoriented. she came around after a few minutes, but she began
rubbing her ears, and complaining of pain in them. she was wearing big gold
loop earrings, and i noticed the area where her ears were pierced were
bright red. the damned lightning had burned her by way of her jewelry.
strange, but her rings and fingers were not affected.
anyway, while we were no more than thirty yards from the bolt, standing
knee deep in water, with 7 feet of graphite in our hands, and the strike
occurred on clear land, we never have forgotten that experience. since
then, the sound of thunder gets me off the creek and in any nearby car,
building, or grove of trees, right away.

yfitons
wayno