nature: thunder and lightning

I used to believe…

to keep me from being afraid of thunder, my dad always referred to it as "Mr. Thunder"
when I heard the expression "roll of thunder" my image of thunder became a giant rolled-up rug made of grey clouds with a grumpy face. whenever the thunder came I imagined the rug rolling out...

After reading Norse mythology at the library, I thought that Thor was one of God's angels and was put in charge of storms, and that he and God were just playing darts.

I used to believe that if u stuck ur middle finger up, god would make a list of ppl to shoot lightning bolts at when a thunderstorn comes. So when there was a thunderstorm I would go to my mom and make her hide me so god wouldnt find me so i would get hit by the lightning.

I always thought that God was having a chariot race and when ever he clipped a rock it would spark and make lightning and the clouds would clap for him winning the race and that would be thunder but if they clapped too hard they would make holes in themselves which rain would pour out.

I used to believe that the lightning would come thru my bedroom window and strike me in my bed...for years I silently wished my bed wasn't right under the darn window !!!! I also thought if I hid under the blankets the lightning wouldn't be able to find me.

When I was about 5 yrs old my mum told me that thunder was the clouds bashing together.Every time there was a thunderstorm i would try and see which clouds were about to collide.I dont consider myself particularly stupid but i believed this until there had been some very bad storms in England around 1988,and in the newspapers they explained that thunder was the sonic boom caused by lightning.I was 17 years of age,and as i read this i could feel my face going beetroot red,i even looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was laughing.

I used to believe that Thunder was made when clouds banged together,
believed this right up to the first year of senior school when I told
everyone my 'knowledge' in a Geography class and got laughed at.

I used to believe that clouds were solid, and when they bumped into eachother that caused thunder and that
lightening was a seperate thing <heehee>.

I also thought that if you said the words 'thunder' or 'lightening' between May and September, that would make it happen and I'd put my fingers in my ears if anyone used those words.

When I was little I thought that lighting could travel through the ground and zap me in the house, and that if my feet were anywhere near the ground it would get me. So if a storm hit i had to have my feet elevated off my bed by my foot stool.

Everytime it would either thunder or lightning outside(when it rained) I could be electrocuted merely by stepping foot into a shower.The family format was to wait until the storm had passed entirely and then proceed with cleaning your body.

I was told as a child that thunder is caused by angels shoving furniture down the stairs, rain was caused by God taking a shower and lighting was caused by the rainwater running into God's electricity supply causing it to blow up. I forget what terminology I used though. Oh well.

For a very long time when I was younger, I was terribly afraid of thunder storms because I thought that thunder was the sound of the barrier between earth and hell being broken and that lightening was the spark of that barrier being broken. I thought I had to sit quietly and pray during thunder storms so that the creatures from hell that escaped through the broken barriers won't come and get me.

when i was younger and i asked why there was thunder and lightining, my mother told me everytime it did it, it was god and the devil having an argument...so I was wondered, hmmm what are they fighting about this time when there were storms.

When I was little, my brother used to tell me that during a thunderstorm lightning would come out of the powerpoints and 'get' me.

To this day, it's something I'm phobic about, even though common sense tells me otherwise!

When I was little I was very frightened of thunder - even if it was far away. To stop me being frightened my Mum used to reasure me that any noises that I heard were only Concord.

I only realised this a few years ago (I'm 30!!) when I realised Concord really couldn't fly over us so many times!

I used to believe that a thunderstorm was caused by angels bowling, that it would thunder when one of them got a strike!