During those seven magical years we spent growing up back on Flamingo Street, a lot of things made our neighborhood unique. First, in Bradley McAllister, we had a resident bully who lived down the street. Second, we had a real live dead ghost living in the haunted forest behind our house. And if that wasn’t unique enough, folks who lived on Flamingo could boast that they had the one and only official weather rock!
About the same size and shape as a basketball, the special rock sat in the middle of Mr. Sims’s backyard garden. The first on the left as you turn down Flamingo, the old red brick house was the original one built on the street.
Some say the entire tri-street area of Flamingo, Scenic Terrace, and the super-rich neighborhood the Duke of Gloucester were once all part of the Sims’s homestead. Don’t really know about that, but I do know he was the oldest and nicest man who ever lived on Flamingo.
And he was the sole owner of the weather rock.
No batteries or electrical extension cords were needed to operate the weather rock. You could search all you wanted to, but you wouldn’t find an on/off switch either. Better predictor than any weatherman on TV, the weather rock was never wrong.
Mr. Sims worked in his yard everyday, and when one of us kids walked or rode our bikes past, we’d shout out, “What’s the weather gonna be today, Mr. Sims?” His answer was always the same and always came with a smile full of the whitest teeth I’d ever seen.
“Let me check the weather rock.”
He’d stop what he was doing and shuffle to the backyard, with us following. I never heard him complain, but one day he explained. “My shuffle come from working on the railroad for sixty years. Hard work has a way of bending the body over time.”
In the center of his garden, he placed a hand on his weather predicting rock. If the rock was warm and bright, Mr. Sims announced that the day would be also. A cold rock indicated a cold day. If the rock was wet, it meant it was raining. If it was hard to see, it indicated fog. And if the moss on the rock were moving, it was gonna be a windy day. There were many other predictions: partly sunny, snow, sleet, and one year the weather rock even predicted a three-month drought! The weather rock was never wrong.
The rock was such a perfect predictor that it, and Mr. Sims, were written up in our local paper. The article stated that it was “one of a kind” and “priceless.” It was so unique and valuable that Down the Street Bully Brad and his gang of three tried to steal it one night.
That was the night they discovered two things. First, after a little digging, the small weather rock was actually the top of a huge boulder too big to be moved. And second, Mr. Sims had a monster of a dog he let roam his backyard at night — a dog that didn’t like being awakened by four kids trying to steal a rock.
After breakfast, I told our two granddaughters to get ready; we were going on a morning hike. They started to protest, “The weatherman last night said it was going to rain today.” I informed them that he was wrong. I’d just checked our weather rock and it was going to be a warm, sunny day. They answered, “There’s no such thing as a weather rock. You made that up. We don’t have one.”
I answered, “Yes, there is.” “No, I didn’t.” And “Yes, we do.”
To prove it, I led them outside to the backyard and proudly showed them the rock about the size of a basketball and demonstrated how it worked. Surprisingly, they still argued that it couldn’t predict the weather — it was just a rock.
During our hike, I told them the story of the official weather rock of Flamingo Street. They still didn’t believe that such a thing existed. As we finished our hike, I asked them to look up. “The weatherman said it was gonna rain today, and our weather rock said it was gonna be sunny and warm. Who was right?”
It was a rare 71-degree day in February with picture perfect blue skies. During the ride back home, they finally conceded that the weatherman was wrong, and our weather rock was correct. “But our rock isn’t official,” they stated. “It hasn’t been written up in the paper.”
Or has it?
If you ever walk or ride your bike by our house and you see me working in the yard, just shout out, “What’s the weather gonna be?” I’ll be happy to stop and shuffle to the backyard to check our weather rock. (My shuffle doesn’t come from working on the railroad, but rather from working at the fire department for 28 years.) And just like back on Flamingo, you can be sure the forecast will be 100% correct.
As of today, the weather rock has been published in the paper. So, just like Mr. Sims, we have the only official weather rock in our fair town, and it’s right in our backyard. Now that it’s so valuable, just hope Down the Street Bully Brad and his gang of three don’t try to dig it up. I guess to make sure it doesn’t get stolen, we need to get a monster of a dog, too.
[Rick Ryckeley has been writing stories since 2001.]
