I noticed the potential for a beautiful sunset lastnight while driving Ammi home from Aikido. After talking Pedro and Ammi into going with me to take photos from the middle of a bridge over the Merrimack river, it all went a little south, kinda.
We find a place to park at Three Dogs Diner on Route 28, lug three cameras, a tripod, and an inquisitive son down the sidewalk onto the bridge. Normally, I would not do this. I am a pretty brave and independent person but, walking on a bridge, in Lawrence, MA, with quite a bit of camera gear, and a young child to take photographs of the sunset is not an idea situation if you know what I mean. However, the weather was delightful, not scorching hot and a slight breeze to keep the humidity feeling a little like an ocean breeze instead of a sauna. The entire time I am setting up my camera for "the money shot" that I had imagined an hour before, Ammi is questioning his dad about the clouds in the sky. Not wondering what kind or how they became but more like "when are they going to rain on us" and "why don't we get back in the car before we get wet"? I'm half listening to this but really trying to concentrate on getting the shot. My nerves are going because of my location and my company. I am always nervous when the dad is in charge of the kid and there is potential danger such as a busy road. So, I take a few shots but decide to switch to the other side of the bridge to try and get a better photograph worth putting my name on. This of course was after explaining my reasoning of parking on one side of the street rather then the other to Pedro that “I AM NOT CROSSING THIS BUSY ROAD WITH AMMI TO TAKE PICTURES”
The view on this side is beautiful. Puffy clouds, a rainbow of colors, old brick mill buildings that were built in the mid 1800’s, an old iron bridge and train track that use to carry materials to the mills along the Merrimack River. The vision in my mind was so magnificent. I was imagining men and women working hard in the mills. The ladies with long dresses and kerchiefs on their heads with wispy pieces of hair poking out around their faces. The men in tattered overalls and leather work boots with weathered hands. All working together in unison with the sounds of whistling in the air and low talking about the happenings in the common that coming weekend.
Through my visions of how life might have been many years ago, I hear Pedro and Ammi still talking about the clouds. I hear Pedro explaining to Ammi about the positioning of the clouds, imagining him pointing in different directions, and how the one right above us could contain rain. Right at that second, I feel one drop. I suggest we should go, even though I have not gotten the shot I imagined in my head, because all I am thinking is how we now have to cross the busy road and head back down about a block to get to the van parked at Three Dogs Diner. I like saying that name.
The calm before the storm was beautiful. Before we even walked three steps, it hit us like a brick wall. Buckets of rain with wind out of the Wizard of Oz came with a fury. I have my tripod, fully extended, in one hand, trying to tuck my rather large camera under my shirt with the other hand while trying to maintain my dignity by keeping all of my fleshy parts of my torso covered up at the same time. Meanwhile, Ammi has a camera tucked under his size small T-shirt and Pedro has the remaining one tucked under his shirt while attempting to traverse himself and Ammi across the middle of the bridge to the other side without losing footing because we all were wearing flip-flops!
We arrive at a tiny space in front of Three Dogs Diner where the rain and wind can not get to us as much. Pedro decides to run to the van and open the slider to allow me and Ammi to just run and jump. As soon as I take off, I am startled by two people standing right around the corner of where we were standing. We did not hear them there talking over the wind and the rain that was roaring like a lion. As soon as we get in the van and shut the door, Pedro says "don't let the bugs in". What? He tells me the van was covered with hundreds of bugs and he hopes we didn't let them in while running for our lives from the fury that just ruined my photoshoot. Ok, so a few got in. Ok, more then a few but who knew my swagger wagon was such an attraction for bugs in a thunderstorm? While we are still sitting in the parking space, Ammi starts in on both of us because "HE TOLD US WE WERE GOING TO GET RAINED ON AND THIS IS THE WORST DAY EVER". He was going on about how this was the worst day ever and if we just would have listened to him we never would have gotten wet and those clouds had rain in them and the wind blew it out right on top of us. If you know Ammi at all, you know he is a bit compulsive and he does not like to get wet or dirty. So, we laughed and agreed with him so we could maybe try to get past this moment with no tears shed.
We started to drive away and noticed the people who had frightened us was a couple who had quite a few bags of groceries in their hands. We offered them a ride and they gladly accepted. They told us how they are use to walking because they ended up having to give up their car about a year and a half ago due to hard economic times. They said that it wasn’t so bad once you got use to it, it was just a new way of life and you are never too far from home if you always walk. They didn't live too far and we chatted the whole time. We let them off on a corner near their house. When they hopped out, they thanked us and we all went our separate ways. As soon as we turned the corner, Ammi says with a happy tone in his voice "we've never played in the rain before". I'm not sure if it was something he heard in our conversation with this couple or just a thought that popped into his head but, all of a sudden he was happy that we got stuck in the rain. I told him the story how when I was little, My Grandma Boyd would wait at the backdoor with towels after Uncle Shannon and I were done playing in the rain and it was such a treat to get to do that. Ammi told me and Pedro that playing in the rain with us was fun and funny and it was "the best day ever".
I may not have got the shot I went there to get but, isn't a photograph "worth a thousand words"? When I look at this photo and think about it, it makes me appreciate it that much more. Sometimes the times that seem rough are the times that bring a family together and opens our hearts and our minds to the potential beauty that is around us.
