Against meteorological odds, it has rained in Waynesburg, Pa., every July 29 for 85 of the last 95 years. Such rainfall regularity would come as welcome relief to farmers in the parched Midwest, now sweltering in its severest drought in a generation (see ECONOMY & BUSINESS). Rain Day has become an annual rite in Waynesburg (pop. 5,152) in the years since 1879, and last week the usual festivities, from square dances to a town picnic, were on the agenda. Few townspeople elected to hang black snakeskins on their fences as offerings to the rain gods as in days gone by....
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