It Ain't Gonna Rain No More

My grandparents (at the right of this family photo from the period) lived on the outskirts of the Dust Bowl, but they still experienced the drought and dust.

One night during a prolonged dry spell, my grandmother sat down at the piano and began to play, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More, No More".

This is the chorus:

It ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
How in the heck can I wash my neck
If it ain't gonna rain no more?

As she was playing and singing, the sky suddenly darkened and lightning struck the house. All the nails were blackened on that side.

My grandparents' hired men lived with them. One had been napping in the upstairs bedroom on that side. He came down the stairs so fast that he didn't seem to have touched the stairs at all.

"Don't play that song again!" he said. "That song called down the lightning on my head!"

She never again played "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More."

During dry spells, I often teased Grandma that she should break the drought by playing that song. She pursed her lips and shook her head each time.

Several versions of this song exist, and I have no idea which verses she was singing. She would never say.