The One Festival Where You Want It To Rain

Today is Rain Day in Waynesburg, PA.

Rain Day got its beginning in the Daly & Spraggs Drug Store, located in the center of Waynesburg. Legend has it that one day a farmer was in the drugstore and mentioned to Byron Daly that it would rain the next day, July 29. Mr. Daly asked him how he knew and he replied that it was his birthday and that it always rained on his birthday. He had a journal for several years in which he recorded the weather and always had noted rain on July 29th. Mr. Daly thought this was too sure a thing to let pass, so he started betting salesmen who came into his drugstore that it would rain in Waynesburg on July 29. The bet was usually a new hat, which of course he would win.

Every year, the town bets someone famous that it will rain, and usually collects a hat from them, because it nearly always rains, at least a few drops.  Weather.com is calling for isolated thunderstorms, so it’s looking good for the festival!

Famous bettors in years past include the Three Stooges, Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, the Dixie Chicks, Johnny Carson, and Punxsutawney Phil, himself associated with another famous Pennsylvania weather-related phenomenon.

I haven’t been able to attend Rain Day festivities in years.  Wish I could be home this year.  Keep your fingers crossed for rain!  And get your Rain Day gear here.