Last night was smudgy. The air was smudgy, the sky smudgy, and all that smudginess did psychedelic things to the moon. I'm a moon fanatic. I came off the train, into the smudgy black night, not a breath of air moving anywhere, it's been dreadful here the last couple of days, and I glanced up, like a little cat, trying to catch a stray breeze, and in looking up - I saw the moon. I sound so much like Anne Shirley right now, but the sight of that moon sent soul-shivers running through my body. It was low in the sky, and one day past fullness. It was enormous, and looked almost swollen with its own color, like an overripe plum. The sky was black around it - and the moon was not white, or golden, but a kind of sluggish dark red, like the storm swirling around Jupiter. The moon: sullen, swollen, smudgy, gorgeous. The whole sky looked like a charcoal drawing that someone had rubbed their arm over, blurring the boundaries. The dark sullen red of the moon seemed to smudge into the sluggish black of the sky ... and perhaps because the moon was so low in the sky, hovering just above Wall Street, it looked abnormally huge. As though it were about to pop. The swollen-ness of the moon added to the smudgy energy of the night, when people were literally lying out in Frank Sinatra park, at 11 pm, in their bathing suits, sluggishly waiting for something, anything ... waiting for the pressure to break. The Hudson was still and black. Unreflective. Not moving. Boats churned by through the black, causing a thick resistant wake to come our way, but other than that - stillness. The Hudson looked solid enough to walk across. A slab of thick black. I couldn't get over the red-ness and full-ness of that moon. It looked almost satanic. Like a sentient being up there. There was no breeze. It's a thunderstorm right now - but we've had two days of unearthly stillness, heaviness, and mugginess. Nothing moving. You ACHE for the air to just ... MOVE!! The pressure still has not broken, and the late afternoon sky is a sickly green - and it has lost its sluggish smudginess. Something's coming.
Last night when I first saw the moon, it so struck me that I was compelled to talk to a stranger. I feel like ancient Druid like people would see bad (or good) omens in such a moon. They would huddle together in their communities, glancing up fearfully every now and then, providing sacrifices, whatever they needed to do. You don't see a moon like that every day.
I needed to share my awe with someone. It was an instinctive thing, I didn't overthink it. I saw the glowing deep red ball and gasped, to the guy next to me - "Oh my God. Look at that moon!!" A more girlie comment would be difficult to imagine. Well: "I prefer Tampax to OB" is pretty girlie as well. But still. Moon-beauty-gushing is really girlie. And it was great: The guy who happened to be next to me was big guy whom I would describe (lovingly, by the way) as a "meathead". He is a total Hoboken type, (but not drunk enough to be evil) - he had "frat boy" written all over him (literally - Greek letters on his sweatshirt, and on his backwards baseball cap) - you can tell that he is no stranger to a weekend kegger - and ... it just was so funny - I MADE him deal with the moon, and he was so nice. He looked up and said, "Oh man. Yeah!"
He could have scorned me. Many people would have been like: "Uhm ... what is your problem, lady? So it's a big red moon, so what?" But he, although he was taken aback, and although he didn't go on and on about how he agreed with me about the moon ... he was kind. He looked up, he took it in, he commented enthusiastically. He did not judge.
I look for kindness wherever I find it. Even in a meathead stranger on a smudgy black night.
Oh, Sheila. You are wonderful.
Posted by: tracey at July 12, 2006 6:02 PMHow ironic that your RI daughter, Ceileidh jumped into the car after her summer stage band practice, ignores my question about how rehearsal went, and immediately commands me to look at the giant red moon hovering over the tennis courts. PS They are playing selections from Queen and the Beatles for their summer concert. Who's cooler than them????
Posted by: just1beth at July 12, 2006 6:05 PMHere is some Maine Native American knowledge for you Sheila from the classic "Farmer's Almanac":
Full Sturgeon Moon - July/August - The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during these months. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.
And if I may add...from the peaks of Sunday River Ski/Golf Resort, it was just a breath taking. Great description!!
chuck - wow!! Thank you! You know, my friend and I knew that such a moon MUST have a name ... but we didn't know what it was. I'll pass this post along to her so she can hear about the Full Sturgeon moon too.
I love that we all saw it. Pretty wild, huh?
Posted by: red at July 12, 2006 7:59 PMBeth - oh man, these are the moments when I wish I lived in RI - I would love to come to her summer concert!!
Posted by: red at July 12, 2006 8:00 PMGreat description. Thank you chuck in maine for Full Sturgeon Moon--my Grandfather used to call a red moon a "sturgeon" moon, and now I know he had some reason for it. Wow. It reminds me of nights fishing on the New River in WV--all kinds of memories hitting me. Again--thanks.
Posted by: DBW at July 12, 2006 8:23 PMSheila-
Yeah, it is pretty wild. Funny though...you comment doesn't seem that girlie, because all I can remember is a bunch of us (all guys by the way, some of which are much older frat boys that still wear their hats backwards!) sitting out on the deck of a bar saying, "WOW, would you look at that moon. Geez, it's not everyday you see something like that! Uhyuh..yessah that there's a cockahhh!" Comical, but at the same time reassuring, that no matter the type of person they can still appreciate awe inspiring nature when it happens.
DBW-
Glad I could spread some of that there local knowledge. I loved my grandfather with all his names and stories he would tell me up at our camp in Maine. I think he also called it a Hunter's Moon.
Posted by: chuck in maine at July 12, 2006 8:33 PMchuck - hahaha Yeah, you're probably right. :) I know appreciation of nature is not a gender-specific thing - it just seemed like such a girlie gaspy-voice thing to do.
But still - love the picture of you and your friends. Very cool.
Posted by: red at July 12, 2006 8:39 PMhahaha..oh yeah, especially after a few adult beverages in the bar!
Incredible moon + ETOH = Nature philosophy on display...Aristotle doesn't know a thing about nature let me tell ya!
And may I add, I loved the way you described the "meathead". Very classic, and now you have given him his next line to use at his next midnight kegger!!
Posted by: chuck in maine at July 12, 2006 8:50 PMHe was just so nice! I make snap judgments like that, as we all do, I guess. I believe that his essence is: good person. That's basically what I got from him in that .5 second interchange. :)
Posted by: red at July 12, 2006 8:51 PMI just thought it was great, because even though we ALL judge (core essence of human nature), you can still take the time to notice and share something that most anyone, even a complete stranger, would find interesting.
You just gotta love those .5 second interchanges! I mean, look at what it inspired you to write. :)
Posted by: chuck in maine at July 12, 2006 9:01 PMThis--THIS--is why I love coming here.
Posted by: Missy at July 13, 2006 8:39 AMDearest: Tuesday night your Aunt Katie called to say that there would be a "Thunder" moon--the July full moon is called the "Thunder" moon by those in the know, outside of the realm of the sturgeon lovers. So your Mum and I went over to Narragansett to see what's the big deal. It rose a little late because of fog on the horizon, but it was as wondrous as you describe. Wed. morning we awoke to thunder. love, dad
Posted by: dad at July 13, 2006 12:25 PMdad - Oh how beautiful. I love narragansett at sunset - it's just spectacular.
Yes - we had thunder the next morning as well! Last night was partcticulary intense - I lost power for a while. The mugginess still hasn't really broken though. Bleh. Time for some cool mountainous air!!
Posted by: red at July 13, 2006 12:31 PMok..so I dug a little deeper after looking at your father's comments. Right from the alamanc itself, published at Gieger Brothers right outside of Lewiston, Maine. (cheap plug I know)
July 10th
Full Buck Moon(also known as a thunder moon)
11:01 am
August 9th
Full Sturgeon Moon
6:54 am
The Full Buck Moon - July - July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the FULL THUNDER MOON, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month's Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
Great work and spot on Mr. O'Malley!
Posted by: chuck in maine at July 13, 2006 2:31 PM