On a camping trip permeated by rainfall you’d think a thunderstorm would not have unnerved the boys from the Salesian Boys Club one night. The storm swept over the Big Bass Lake area after 2am and the wind was howling. All of us stayed in the tents as the rain just poured down from the sky. Yet all we felt was drips and drabs as the canopy of trees overhead took away the majority of the heavy rainfall.

Some of the boys slept right through that storm even though the thundering was ferocious at times. I looked out my tent flap and could observe white caps on the lake. It was a good thing that we brought our two rowboats well onto land that night as the signs of a storm were telling late in the day by the cumulous clouds overhead.

One of the boys in my tent drew in close to me with every passing thunderclap. As I tucked him back into his sleeping bag I told him that storms make for great sleeping but he said, “How, with all that noise?” I replied that they must be bowling in heaven that night and there were a great many strikes to be had. I don’t think that convinced him that all was well.

After about a grueling hour, the storm passed by and all we heard till morning was the dripping from the trees that consumed most of that water. In the morning one boy groaned that our clotheslines had not done their job as all the clothes were wet. I reassured him that they would be dry by the end of the day which they were. All bad things do pass you know. All in all it was an interesting night at Big Bass Lake. By the way that day after the storm was our only completely dry day of our trip.