This particular rainbow looks like it could be a scene from the classic cop show Hawaii Five-0. Anyone here a fan?

Hey Brad, I used to watch that show! I remember the famous line, “Book ‘em Danno!” That was a great show. This rainbow is beautiful. I love rainbows.

The flooding picture is very sad. I just can’t imagine that much water and so many lives being changed by it. It’s interesting having the rainbow picture with the flooding–the rainbow always appears after the rain. Hopefully things will improve for everyone.

Margie

It saddens me to see the photo of Homewood, Illinois being flooded, as have all of the flood photos this week.

Who would have thought that Iowa would be flooded? I feel so sorry for its residents. When I was a boy, I loved it when my parents and I visited Iowa. I liked going to the old Gamble stores that were all over small town America. In the summer, Iowa was sunny and clear — a good time for a state fair!

(By the way, if you have never seen the movie “State Fair” (1945) with Jeanne Crain, by all means do so. It is a romanticized version of the Iowa State Fair. Dick Haymes is in it and sings “It Might as Well Be Spring” so beautifully. That song is one of my favorites!)

When I was growing up in Chicago, heavy rains sometimes flooded our basement. We lived in an old frame house built in the 1880’s in Berwyn, about seven miles southwest of downtown Chicago. Our basement had 30-inch square concrete slabs embedded in dirt for a basement. It was only six feet tall, and eight-inch square wooden beams supported the house. When you walked through the basement, you had to be careful not to bump your head on the beams, which everyone in my family did all of the time. Ouch!

If our basement was flooded, the water was usually only two or three inches deep, but I remember a couple of times when it was about six or eight incles deep. We didn’t have a subpump. We simply waited for the water to drain away, which it always did in a day or so.

One of my two aunt’s who lived with us operated a small laundry from the basement. She had about a dozen customers, bachelors who lived two blocks away in the Berwyn Hotel. My mother and my aunt washed clothes on Monday and hung them on clothes lines in the backyard. If it rained, they hung them on clothes lines in the basement and on our enclosed back porch.

My dad built a stand for the two washing machines, placing them a foot above the basement floor. He built two steps to make it easy for my mother and my aunt to use them. He also built a long bench about 30-inches wide along the opposite wall. At one end, he placed a mangle to make it easier for my aunt to iron clothing. He add a couple of shelves on the wall above the bench and two more below the bench. The boxed shirts were stored above the bench to keep them safe just in case….

I moved from Chicago to San Francisco in 1986, then moved to Thousand Oaks in 1987, and setlled in Los Angeles in 1990. I live only two miles from Venice Beach.

I lament that it never rains in Southern California (reminded you of a song, didn’t I?). When it does, it’s only a slight drizzle — but that’s enough to cause one fender bender after another on the freeways and major boulevards, because most Southern Californians don’t have a clue on how to drive on slippery freeways and streets.

When I lived in Chicago, it rained two or three days a week, sometimes more, from March through November, then turned to snow for the winter months. And, when it rained in Chicago, it rained! Two to three inches, sometimes more, was common. In Southern California, it usually rains about a half-an-inch or less. An inch of rain causes havoc.

I miss those rainy days in Chicago, especially rainy Saturday mornings when I could sleep in until nine or ten o’clock. There is nothing like rain to lull you to sleep.

Now it is a litte passed 10:30 in Saturday morning. It’s sunny and clear in L.A. with the temps in the 80’s today! Time to sign off and go to the supermarket….

Bye!

George Spink
Los Angeles
Visit George’s Blog

Hey Margie-

Yep, Hawaii Five-0 was one of my all time favorites. I think Season 4 of the show was released on DVD last week. I remember reading about it. Do they happen to still how the reruns where you live?

Its amazing the devastation Mother Nature has done to an entire city. It makes me feel like going over there and helping those residents in need. It saddens me to see ppl’s lives affected like this.

Take Care.