It’s raining it’s pouring
The old man is snoring
He bumped his head
On the foot of the bed
And he didn’t get up in the morning
I’m sure you’ve heard of this nursery rhyme at least once in your life. This is the way that I learned it (which means that this is the right way).
I used to sing this nonstop whenever it rained. It probably annoyed my parents indefinitely. But whenever it rained and I was reminded of this song, I used to wonder why the old man couldn’t get up in the morning.
And how did he even bump his head on the foot of the bed? Was he sleeping upside down? Who does that? Does he thrash in his sleep? If so, why does he thrash about? Was he having nightmares? What was the cause of the nightmares?
Let us say that when this man was nothing but a mere child with about eight years under his belt, he loved the jungle. He wanted to grow up to be a scientist, scouring the Amazon for new plant and animal species. And this eight-year-old Old Man had to practice. How else would he get ahead of the game? So Old Man decided to swing with a rope off of the roof of his barn to practice his vine-swinging. However, Old Man lacked the upper-body strength required to swing from a rope and he immediately slid down it, earning rope burns on the pads of his fingers.
Now, while we wait for Old Man to fall, let us talk about his little sister, Annie. Annie was a pretty little thing with about six years behind her and she adored nothing more than her stuffed animals. She stored her large stuffed animal collection in a wading pool beneath the barn to protect them from the rain.
Some would say luckily (and others would say unluckily) for Old Man, Annie’s stuffed animal pool was positioned directly underneath the rope from which he fell and Old Man, therefore, fell into the wading pool instead of onto the unforgiving ground. While Old Man was thrashing about in this wading pool, blood pumped with adrenaline and surrounded by the glass eyes of stuffed animals, Old Man believed that this was his end and that he had reached his untimely death. This supposed death was not due to his large fall. Rather, it was due to his little sister’s stuffed animals.
After this curious incident, Old Man had developed a fear of stuffed animals. It didn’t affect him much, though, until he had grown middle-aged and had a daughter of his own. This daughter of his adored stuffed animals as much as, if not more than, little Annie. But Old Man was careful in avoiding his daughter’s toys and he managed to hide his fear.
But in his ripe old age, Old Man’s daughter thought that piling his bed with her old stuffed animals would bring the old man some comfort. How wrong she was.
Instead of the intended comfort, these stuffed animals plagued Old Man with terrifying nightmares. But no matter how much he might’ve wanted to, Old Man could not remove the stuffed animals from his bed as he was a kind and gentle soul and he could not bear to hurt his dear daughter’s feelings.
And this is the reason the old man’s head was near the foot of the bed.
Now as to why he didn’t get up in the morning.
I think he died due to the bumping of his head.
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