Sounds of the past

[2jakes]

The earliest sounds that I recall fondly even though was many many years ago
was my grandma’s tender voice and lullaby.
Her rocking chair and the swing on the front porch. Candlestick phone and the
clatter it made when dialing.
The sound of the needle on the record as it got to the end of the music on her
huge wood record player. I was only two so I can’t be specific as to the name
or brand.
The deep sound of automobile horns. The clicking of the bus tires on the pavement.
The stomping of the feet on the floor by folks in the movie theater when the film broke.
The prayer in school by kids. The clanging of the lockers in school.
The echo of the basketball in an empty gym.
The baseball being hit with a wooden bat.
The sound of the jump rope on the pavement by my sisters.
Sisters arguing or listening to 45 rpm on tiny record players.
Coins in my pockets. My small transistor radio.
The laughter/applause/cheering by folks in a movie house.
The feedback of a microphone in the auditorium.
The engines of the B-52 bombers and explosions.
The ricochet of bullets whizzing as they past by.
The screams of soldiers dying.
Women.
Church bells.
The rain hitting on a tin roof.
Tiny bell on wood doors at the local shops.
Old cash registers with hand crank.
Punching in at work on a time machine clock.
Grandfather clock in the evenings.
Fireplaces and the crackle of the wood.
The teapot.
The clicking of scissors or buzzing sound of the trimmer
that the barber uses. Also the leather strap to sharpen the razor.
And my mama’s voice that I try to recall so I won’t forget as I
get older.

 

[BlueTrain]

I remember some of those sounds but not others. Some sounds were unique (or so I think) but I'm constantly reminded of them, which is not to say I have warm fuzzy memories of something, only a memory.

For instance, at the grade school, now torn down, that I attended, we had several pieces of playground equipment. One consisted of a tall galvanized metal pole in the ground with chains that had hand holds, all suspended from a rotating top. You held on to the handholds, ran and swung around. When you let go, the chains and handles would make a distinctive clinking sound when they hit the pole. Here where I work now, there is a metal post in the lobby that supports a balcony for the second floor that, when you hit it with you knuckle, makes exactly the same sound, or at least that's what I think of every time I hear it.

Most of the other sounds that you mention haven't changed but some have become rare, like a bell on the door to a shop or store. Some old department stores used to have a bell or something, I think, that you would hear in the store but I don't know what it signaled. But we still have a time clock here somewhere.

The sound of the air pump at the gas station is a different sound. It isn't the pump itself that makes the noise. The pump is somewhere inside the station, if it even has an air pump, but rather the sound of the gauge as you inflate your tire. It seems like gas pumps used to make a similar sound but I have no clear memory of it.

Old sounds fade away and new ones come along. Now the washer and the dryer play a few notes when the lid is opened. The microwave beeps when the food is ready and lord knows what sounds a cellphone makes because I don't have one. Undoubtedly there are other new sounds that I don't hear because my technology is a little behind the times.

 

[Frunobulax]

Does NBC still have their three tone "fanfare" (for lack of a better word)?

Still used for news reports that are on NBC radio affiliates

https://web.archive.org/web/20070307110031/http://www.uspto.gov/go/kids/soundex/72349496.mp3

Here are some additional radio news sounds. I listen to WLW out of Cincinnati, and they still use the 4-note ABC News sound when they break in for stories.
http://www.networknewsmusic.com/wp/abc-news-radio-current-theme/

The sound of the air pump at the gas station is a different sound. It isn't the pump itself that makes the noise. The pump is somewhere inside the station, if it even has an air pump, but rather the sound of the gauge as you inflate your tire. It seems like gas pumps used to make a similar sound but I have no clear memory of it.

There use to be a steady ding! as it racked up the gallons. I also seem to remember little bubble windows on the top that would toss little balls or something around while the gas pumped.

 

[2jakes]

The bell still dings on the gas station floor when I drive in for gas.

The cell phone chimes a tiny bell to let me know of
new mail, messages from everyone on my list including forums.

But I rarely used the apps on the cellphone.
The best thing about the cellphone for me is that in an emergency
I can call for help if I’m stranded on remote places.

I don’t talk on the cellphone as much, even on the old landline phones
unless they were far away in another town.
I prefer to chat in person with friends.

 

[Tiki Tom]

The rain hitting on a tin roof.

Great list of sounds. I especially liked "rain on a tin roof." It reminds me that that is called "the Hawaiian lullaby" in the Aloha State.

 

[Fading Fast]

Great list of sounds. I especially liked "rain on a tin roof." It reminds me that that is called "the Hawaiian lullaby" in the Aloha State.

Your highlighting this reminds me of another sound - my dad had a friend who we'd visit at his house often and he had a breezeway or Jalousie porch (nope, didn't have to look the spelling of that one up at all - alright, I wasn't even close after the first three letters), which was a porch with Jalousie (narrow louvered, floor-to-ceiling) windows on the three sides not attached to the house.

On warm days we'd sit out there as, if there was any breeze, it would come through. On breezy rainy days, we'd be out there and the porch windows would rattle away from the wind and the rain as the house was older and the windows were no longer tight (I guess). I can still hear in my head the sound of that porch's unique rattling - it was quite a racket, but a really nice room to sit in. You felt kinda outside, but protected from the worst of the elements.

 

[BlueTrain]

There is another sound that I like hearing, only it isn't something I remember from my childhood. I don't hear it everywhere and yet, at the same time, I have heard it in other places, meaning it isn't unique to where I live or work. I only hear it first thing in the morning when I'm in a work environment or somewhere close to where people work. It can be heard downtown or out in the suburbs in the office parks where there is more industry than you realize. It is the sound of the world waking up and going to work. Mostly it's the sound of vehicles and it seems to completely disappears by, say, 9:00 o'clock when the traffic is heavy and slows down. I know, it sounds crazy. Part of it is the cool, fresh morning air. I never notice any such sound in the evening when I'm leaving.

But one similar sound I remember from the 1950s was the sound of trains starting up. I grew up in a railroad town. Sometimes I could hear the engines (diesel-electrics) but always the clank-clank-clank of the slack in the couplings being taken up as the train started to move. But it was just a sound and I never attached any romantic ideas of wanderlust to it or anything like that. I don't think I've heard it anywhere else.

Another sound I haven't heard for a long, long time is the sound of a reel-type push mower. It made a whirring sound when you stopped and the cutting blades kept revolving for a few seconds. But I don't miss using one the least bit.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ Riffing off of Blue Train, as a very early riser (and I go to the gym, so I'm out early), the morning sound that I'm hearing less-and-less frequently is the sound of the newspaper delivery truck throwing a giant stack of papers out the side door to land beside a newsstand. It still happens as the tabloids still do a decent physical-paper business with the commuters in this city, but it is less and less each year. Those stacks make a very rewarding thwap when a really good-sized one lands just right on the sidewalk.

And, I agree, the morning sound, certainly in a city, is the sound of trucks, first, and, then, all vehicles.

 

[Frunobulax]

And BlueTrain reminded me of a couple of things, as well. As a 60s semi-suburban kid, trains were something in the distance. But in the early 90s, I had a job that had me on the W.Va/KY border, and we'd get up and get out pretty early. The clank-clank isn't what I remember as much as that high-pitched squeal of metal-on-metal as the wheels strained against the tracks.

Also, living not far from Wright-Patterson AFB, which used to be a Strategic Air Command post during the Cold War. I seem to remember a constant, low rumble of jet engines at all times, that doesn't exist here anymore.

Also, when I was in college, my dorm room sat at the corner of Murray Hill and Cedar Ave in Cleveland. I used to leave my windows open when the weather permitted and found the traffic flow soothing. It was like listening to waves crash, as the traffic would increase and decrease over time.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Your highlighting this reminds me of another sound - my dad had a friend who we'd visit at his house often and he had a breezeway or Jalousie porch (nope, didn't have to look the spelling of that one up at all - alright, I wasn't even close after the first three letters), which was a porch with Jalousie (narrow louvered, floor-to-ceiling) windows on the three sides not attached to the house.

On warm days we'd sit out there as, if there was any breeze, it would come through. On breezy rainy days, we'd be out there and the porch windows would rattle away from the wind and the rain as the house was older and the windows were no longer tight (I guess). I can still hear in my head the sound of that porch's unique rattling - it was quite a racket, but a really nice room to sit in. You felt kinda outside, but protected from the worst of the elements.

Jalousie windows were very common in the South back in the days before air conditioning was common. Growing up in Florida, we had them in our house, and at school (where didn't get A/C until the 10th grade), the entire back wall was floor to ceiling jalousie windows. They aren't so much a sound I miss as a sight. Now, every window in every building is shut up tighter than Dick's hatband.

Although...I guess that reminds me that back in the day when everyone's windows were open, you heard everything coming from their house, good or bad. Walking by our house, for example, you might here me blaring my first Lynyrd Skynyrd record or my mother on piano playing standards from the Baptist Hymnal. Or my sister yelling about something or other. We were not one of the quieter houses in town.

 

[2jakes]

Sounds of "Fall".

Mostly in the evenings from my bedroom window.
I hear the high school band and the crowd cheering
for their football team when they score.
The wind and the leaves bringing in the cold.

The train whistle.
It's far away in the distance so
that it's not annoying.
Must be the time of the year that
the wind carries the sounds.
It’s haunting & pleasant at the same time.
Reminds me of my youth.

 

[BlueTrain]

I've heard that sound carries farther in cold weather but I don't know if that's true.

 

[2jakes]

I've heard that sound carries farther in cold weather but I don't know if that's true.

It’s must be true because the train is not limited to just the fall weather.
Yet that’s about the only time I hear it.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I've heard that sound carries farther in cold weather but I don't know if that's true.

This is true. Sound travels faster in warm air, but carries farther in colder air.

 

[Frunobulax]

Sound travels faster in warmer temperatures. Sound propagation is more dependent on ambient absorption and geometry. It can get kinda complicated in the real world.

 

[2jakes]

“Sounds” that are not pleasant.”

1. Early holiday jingles.
2. Engine stalling on a cold morning.
3. Water heater knocking.
4. Alarm clock on my day off from work.
5. My boss telling me I need to do double shift because
someone called in sick.
6. Police siren to pull over.
7. Kids screaming loud in the store throwing a tantrum.
8. Car alarm horn going off in the middle of the night.
9. Cats howling at each other in the night.
10. Polo purring loudly in my ears not for affection but
because he wants to eat at 3 am.

 

[GHT]

The train whistle. It's far away in the distance so that it's not annoying.

Two distinct sounds that I recall, the train whistle of course, I would catch a bus to the far outreaches of London, where an express train, leaving the terminus station, would have enough time to pick up speed and roar through the suburban station. It's whistle shrieking a warning to stand clear, perhaps an eight year old stood perilously close to danger, but how else was I to capture the train's name and number?
The other sound was that bus journey. When we had rear loading buses and bus conductors, the bell on the bus was operated by a cord that ran the length of the vehicle, but only downstairs. Upstairs the conductor would have to walk the length of his bus to give the driver his starting signal. The only bell push upstairs was at the top of the staircase. Some enterprising conductors would stamp out the bell signal over the driver's cab. It's that bell that I remember so vividly, it clear clang was so loud that some drivers would deaden the sound with an empty paper bag, woe betide them though if an inspector got on and caught them.

 

[Fading Fast]

“Sounds” that are not pleasant.”

1. Early holiday jingles.
>>>> When Lizzie is dictator, right after executing me, I expect her to put a stop to this.

2. Engine stalling on a cold morning.
>>>> I haven't owned a car in 27 years - haven't they solved for this yet?

3. Water heater knocking.
>>>> Agreed, yet oddly, I like the sound of radiators clunking away, ours do, very homey, let's you know they're working hard to heat your home for you.

4. Alarm clock on my day off from work.
>>>> The flip side, how great is it when you realize you can just turn it off and go back to bed?

5. My boss telling me I need to do double shift because
someone called in sick.
>>>> But if you get time and half, ain't the worst thing.

6. Police siren to pull over.
>>>> Yup, never good.

7. Kids screaming loud in the store throwing a tantrum.
>>>> Another problem I expect Dictator Lizzie to solve.

8. Car alarm horn going off in the middle of the night.
>>>> In the city, that kills too many nights of sleep to count, but seems to happen less now than 20 years ago.

9. Cats howling at each other in the night.
>>>> check

10. Polo purring loudly in my ears not for affection but
because he wants to eat at 3 am.
>>>> Our dog Finn is, overall, very well behaved, but when he very much wants to express his opinion that he should be fed, he'll pull his dinner bowl into the middle of the kitchen floor and bang his paw on it and then stare at you. As much as we don't want to encourage this behavior - since it is so infrequent and so out of character, we normally just laugh. The poor guy must really be hungry as 99% of the time he just wants to please you.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Christmas music in general makes my skin crawl. Especially novelty Christmas music.

A sound that's disappearing fast is carpenters hammering with actual hammers. My next-door neighbor is having his roof redone this week, and every morning I'm waking up to the ratta-tatta-chatter of a pneumatic nail gun. Do Not Like.

Radio time signals have faded away. NBC had a beeeeep, CBS had a "bong," Mutual had a higher-pitched beep before going to a chirp. But you rarely hear any of them anymore, which is why my home radio stations use them. About the only station I hear that still uses a time signal is WTIC in Hartford, which still sounds a morse-code V -- ...- -- at the top of every hour, just as it's been doing since 1943.

 

[2jakes]

Fading Fast.
^^^^
When Polo wants to go outside, he’ll pick the window that’s close to my desk.
The window has wood shutters.
Polo will place one paw on the shutters and go up and down creating a noise.
The weirdest part is that he will stare at me while doing this.
If I ignore him, he will use both paws, all the time looking at me.

He knows that eventually I will let him out the door.
And he always gives me a low guttural growl that sounds Irish and
is his way of thanking me as he leaves.

He does the same sound when I let him in. Always.
He is the only cat that I know that will follow me with his eyes.
His behavior is more dog than cat.

He has own me for several years.
I try not to think about it.
But I will miss him dearly.