Waiting on the Rain

So there’s a part of being a writer that some non-writers may not understand. It’s the moment that, at freaking 4:45 AM, an idea pops into your head, and you scramble to get out of your wonderfully perfect bed to grab your notebook, or laptop…whichever is closest!

So for a while I’ve wanted to write a reminiscent and nostalgic tune about childhood innocence and all that jazz. Well, there is one particular thing that I remember about my childhood that I always wanted to throw into a song.

I grew up in the hills of southern Indiana, next to a fairly large field. Up until my teenage years, they used it as a hay field. The round bales were lined up in rows on the crest of a hill, by the road and the entrance to the field. My friends and I used to wander out to the field and climb on the hay bales. We’d run on the rows, talking about cute boys and all of our crazy dreams.

I’d been trying to figure out a way to stick that memory of sitting on those hay bales, looking out over what seemed like half the county (I live on a really big hill! J) into some kind of song. Any kind of song! To saw I was desperate would be an understatement.

Well the other day I posted a Facebook status about how I was waiting for the rain and a dear friend of mine said that it would make a good hook. It brought back a memory about those round bales in the field and I knew that I would finally be able to work that scene from my childhood into a song! The first verse, in fact, did happen when I was a teenager. While my father worked on clearing a tree that had fallen across the road, I sat on top of those broken down bales, watching the next wave of storms roll in, and trying to get a cool picture of the lightning...which was interesting because I had a cheap little digital camera, but I was still in 4-H and thought a cool lighting shot would do well at the fair, so I kept on snapping away...but I didn't get a single decent shot.

Now, I will clarify that the second verse is purely fictional, but I mean, come on, it had to go there! I don't know if I will put music to it. For right now, I'm going to attempt to recover the two hours of sleep that I just lost.

Waiting on the Rain

© 2014 Chelsey Sears

At the crest of Baker’s hill

When it was still in hay

There sat a row of ole round bales

Where us kids would play

One night my old man was clearing

A tree across the road

I went along, and sat on top the world

Watching the storm clouds roll

Lighting in the distance

Change on the breeze

Headstrong, facing to the wind

To soak up the sweet release

Felt a rumble in my soul

That I remember to this day

Waiting on the rain

Billy took my breath away

When I was seventeen

He promised me that it was love

And back then, I still believed

On those steamy July evenings

We’d sneak off and park

Lay ‘top a blanket in the bed

But we weren’t watching the stars

Lighting in the distance

Change on the breeze

Headstrong, facing to the wind

To soak up the sweet release

Felt a rumble in my soul

That I remember to this day

Waiting on the rain

Screen door slammed behind me

Didn’t know where else to go

With all my things in the front seat

As the sky began to blow

Staring at a two-year tan line

There on my left hand

You know hap’ly ever after

Doesn’t always go as planned

But there’s lighting in the distance

And change on the breeze

Headstrong, I’m facing to the wind

Soaking up the sweet release

I can feel a freedom in my soul

No one can take away

Waiting on the rain

I can feel a freedom in my soul

No one can take away

Waiting on the rain