Lost Sounds?

[Brilliant Bill]

This is a beautifully written piece about the sounds we lose. Here in Philadelphia we will soon lose a unique sound that has marked the passages of life for millions of travelers.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20...ing_sound.html

I've started a list of other sounds we've lost. Anyone have others to share?

Shoe taps on a sidewalk

Clack of a typewriter, bell, carriage return, clack, bell, carriage return, clack, bell carriage return

Quiet scratch and whoosh of a match lighting up

The return clatter of a rotary dial phone

Rumble of coal loading in a bin next to the house

Old time radio dramas that now play only from my iPod as I transition to sleep

Short wave radios

Baseball cards in bicycle wheels

TV end-of-broadcast-day messages

Gears grinding when a shift was missed in conventional transmissions

Back fires (replaced by gunshots?)

Churchbells in most neighborhoods

Silence of summer evening as lightning bugs duel with dark descending on a NJ cornfield

Coins dropping into a payphone in the silence of a closed wooden phone booth

[jar]

The hiss of tires after a rainfall heard through the open window.
The clatter of vacuum wipers.
The car radio fading in and out as you drive up and down hills.
The bell as you pull up to the petrol pump that calls the attendant.
AT THE TONE THE TIME IS...
The static after the station goes off the air in the evening.
The "What Floor Please" and the instructions from the operator to please step back as he closes the grate on the elevator.
"Calling Philip Morris".
"Number please?"

[Paddler]

Quiet scratch and whoosh of a match lighting up
We still use matches here. (and sometimes even flint and steel)

Old time radio dramas that now play only from my iPod as I transition to sleep
You can still find those on AM radio at night.

Short wave radios
I have four: one is a modern digital one, one is a communication receiver from the 1960s, one came from a WWII B17, one is a crystal set.

Gears grinding when a shift was missed in conventional transmissions
My car has a standard transmission, although I rarely grind the gears.

Churchbells in most neighborhoods
We have churches with bells. One rings the hours and another rings the Angelus twice daily.

The hiss of tires after a rainfall heard through the open window.
We don't use the AC all the time.

The static after the station goes off the air in the evening.
That is still there; listen to AM radio. You can also hear the crash of lightning strokes from many miles away.

How about the tick of a mechanical clock escapement heard across the room? Or coming from your pocket watch?
The scratch of a weevil grub chewing its way out of a chestnut.
The piping of a queen bee.

[carlos.q]

The screeching sound of a 14k modem....

[Sailor Kenshin]

Cool post, thanks.

We still use matches almost every day.

We still have a manual typewriter (which sees far less use).

We still hear churchbells in a certain part of town.

[datainadequate]

Mechanical cash-registers (ka-ching!)
Mechanical calculators
Football (soccer) rattles

[Hawk]

We enjoy listening to our two regulator clocks, a grandfathers clock and a gold wall clock that strikes a bell. They don't regulate time precisely therefore, we hear them separately. The ticking sounds blend in most of the time so one has to listen for it. On Sharon's videos and podcasts, the clocks strike bringing up questions on the sounds on occasion.

[Waski_the_Squirrel]

What I really love is the sound of silence. I live in town and though it's a small town, I it is still louder than I like. It is really hard to find true silence. I can sometimes find it out in the country, but then someone is on an ATV or an airplane goes overhead. And a lot of people can't get away from their earbuds. There is always noise.

During high school I lived in the country, and there was more silence there than in town, but there was also noise: ATVs, vehicles going by, people playing music loudly, and, in the winter, snowmobiles. I would love to be able to hear only nature.

[ethernautrix]

I don't miss the sound of a busy signal.
I would miss the sound of a faraway train's whistle.
I enjoy the sound of church bells -- at a distance.

I intended to say the sound of a modem connecting, but someone else beat me to it, and I don't miss that, either.

Oh, the country is loud with sounds! Nature is loud if you yourself are quiet.

I haven't lived "out in the country," but I moved from San Francisco to a small town in New England, and while I could sleep through the sirens of ambulances and police cars, I could not ignore those fricken birds and whatever nocturnal elses.

Now I live in the fourth largest city in Poland in a neighborhood with cobbledstone roads, and the tires of vehicles speeding by sound different. And in the rain... it's lovely (in its way).

I would miss the clickety-clackety of the train station signs in Philly.

In Las Vegas and other casino cities (I've heard), the one-armed bandits no longer KLASHSHSHS with coins spilling into the metal receptacles. Now it's all BEEP BOOP BOOP BEEP or siren sounds.

[Brilliant Bill]

The sound of silence? Yes, it is almost impossible to find, yet be careful what you ask for. I wrote a piece about that some years ago...

https://deadreckoning1.wordpress.com...-of-ourselves/

I also crave silence, solitude, and that's why I pay so much attention to sounds. If there was any up side to the "9/11" event in this country (USA) it was the silence. Suddenly, the overhead space that always screamed with aircraft of all types went silent, totally silent. I'll never forget that. I hiked up the side of a mountain on 9/12 and it was almost eerily quiet.

Oh, and yes, the clatter of coins in casinos is long gone. I was startled by that 10 years ago when I visited Las Vegas. It was like the money itself had gone silent.

[Hawk]

What I really love is the sound of silence. I live in town and though it's a small town, I it is still louder than I like. It is really hard to find true silence. I can sometimes find it out in the country, but then someone is on an ATV or an airplane goes overhead. And a lot of people can't get away from their earbuds. There is always noise.

During high school I lived in the country, and there was more silence there than in town, but there was also noise: ATVs, vehicles going by, people playing music loudly, and, in the winter, snowmobiles. I would love to be able to hear only nature.

Our small town (legally a village), has a double track BNSF railroad running diagonally through it. The tracks run from 'China' to warehousing space south of Chicago. Not quiet anymore. A train whistle would be better than the train horn.

[Hawk]

A previous poster reminded me of the sound of auto tires running on a brick street. At that same location, there was an old wooden bridge with loose boards that clattered when cars ran over it. Those sounds were from 50+ years ago at my Dads' cousin's house.

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[Ron Z]

At least the Wanamaker organ still plays.

[FredRydr]

At least the Wanamaker organ still plays.

Is that you in the front?

[Ron Z]

I rode that many times when I was a kid.

[Brilliant Bill]

I had forgotten about this post. Nice to reread it after many years!!!

Been a lot of years since I heard the sound of a milk shake machine in a real soda fountain. There must still be some arounds, maybe in diners.