rain was born in what newspapers, when they took note of her violent end, called a “hippie commune”.
rain’s parents, and their neighbors in the campsite on the outskirts of the little northwestern town, never called it that, and rain never heard the term “hippie” until she was forced to go to school, at the age of eight.
a truant officer, or some sort of bureaucrat, showed up at the campsite, and told rain’s parents, and the parents of a couple of other children, that the children would have to attend the little school in the nearest town.
the inhabitants of the campsite were peaceful sorts, and they agreed to comply. the children, including rain, starting going to school, though not every day.
rain’s parents where called gandalf and moon woman. rain regarded these names as perfectly natural, like her own.
gandalf and moon woman eked out an existence making wooden musical instruments, like flutes and mandolins and zithers, which they sold at local fairs, and by burglary. moon woman was very adept at spotting opportunities in this line, and planning for them.
moon woman also set up as a reader of tarot cards, but the money she made from this was inconsequential.
the children at the school regarded the newcomers with mild curiosity. they knew that “hippies” lived on the outskirts of town, and took their existence for granted. some of them were gratified that the hippies now had to suffer the imposition of school, just as they always had, and were no longer getting away with anything.
rain was placed in first grade, with children most of whom were two years older than herself, but she was small for her age, and so did not stand out in that regard.
rain made friends with a girl named sally. sally had envied the hippie children, and was sincerely commiserative with rain for losing her freedom. rain began spending her afternoons at sally’s house.
sally’s house had two things rain had little experience of - snacks and television.
sally. like rain, was an only child. her mom was an easygoing sort, who did not have a job, and who spent her days chainsmoking and reading detective novels. she did not watch much television , at least not during the daytime, and sally and the friends she brought home were free to watch anything they liked, on the four network stations and two local stations available.
sally’s favorites were american bandstand, the flintstones, yogi bear, and gilligan’s island. rain learned to love them too, especially gilligan’s island.
snacks. rain had been raised eating nuts, berries, and oatmeal. she had no concept of food as something to enjoy. at sally’s house she was introduced to sticky popcorn, wise potato chips, and ice cream sandwiches.
sally’s mom was an irregular cook. on some days she did not cook dinner at all, just snacked. on others she cooked big dinners of hamburger patties, mashed potatoes, and canned peas or creamed corn.
and she made herself sandwiches at any time of day, when the mood took her. one afternoon she made herself a fried egg and bacon sandwich and saw rain staring wonderingly at it.
you want one of these, honey? here, let me make you one.
rain bit into the greasy fried egg and bacon sandwich. this was the tipping point for her. how much better it was to live like this, watching gilligan’s island and eating fried egg sandwiches, than at her own home, gagging on incense and listening to moon woman and gandalf endlessly discussing, and occasionally arguing about, the fine points of astrology.
rain never hated or resented her parents, but she resolved at this early age to leave the hippie lifestyle behind as soon as possible.
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