July 6, 2012

Nostalgia for old sounds...

... that once exemplified newness.

What are the sounds you hear now that will soon enough disappear into the history of lost sounds?

We remember old songs and we take the trouble to listen to music, but do we pay attention to all the sounds that form our environment, the sounds that would represent the past to us if they were gone? What is the content of the sound in the place where you are right now? Do you mask it with music? Are you uneasy when things are too quiet, or do you settle down and notice that it's never completely quiet, that there are always sounds, little sounds that emerge in the near quiet? Are you taking the trouble to love them before they are gone?

107 comments:

MadisonMan said...

The sounds of a manual typewriter.

Heard all too rarely these days.

(This is not a plea for a link to Leroy Anderson, by the way)

jungatheart said...

Oh, the irony of a cell phone ringtone of a traditional phone. R-r-r-r-ing!

Anonymous said...

The sound of lots of kids playing in the street and around the neighborhood.

The sound of sonic booms off in the distance. (When I was young, we lived in the mountain west near an air force training ground.)

ndspinelli said...

I chersih quiet but it's unique in our culture. I have to assume I'm in the lowest stanine since everyone seems to love auditory stimulation. I do love the sounds of crikets on a summer night.

Ann Althouse said...

We were just noticing the sound of cracking a can open and thinking about the time in the future when that sound would not exist and how, if we were around then and heard a recording of that sound, it would be so profoundly evocative.

And then we drank some Diet Coke.

ndspinelli said...

I meant "crickets." Amazingly, one of the most annoying sounds is the cricut machine my bride uses for scrapbooking, akin to nails on the chalkboard.

ndspinelli said...

The sound of wood baseball bats hitting a fastball. You can tell by the pitch just how hard the ball was hit. Richie Allen and Harmon Killebrew had some of the highest pitch sounds. In recent years, Frank Thomas and Canseco. You can hear it best during batting practice or @ Spring Training. But also during a game in good seats. Aluminum makes me sad.

Palladian said...

I make recordings of sounds that I think I will lose.

I also keep a rotary telephone on my desk. It's not connected to anything, but I sometimes dial it.

Anonymous said...

Aluminum makes me sad.

Boy, I really agree.

Whose dumb idea was that?

Irene said...

Puppies react to the sounds of a can opening.

Bob Ellison said...

My house, nearing 300 years old, is full of creaking floorboards. My youngest child's laugh is classic.

I've almost forgotten the sounds of a car engine trying to turn over, and of a loud dishwasher.

Mourning doves make sounds I love, but the Phoenix-area White-Winged Dove's song is the call I hear in my dreams.

Ann Althouse said...

Here's that video I did of Meade riding a kid's bike the other day. It's almost silent, but there's detail to the sound, mostly birds. Those particular bird sounds define our neighborhood, which is also defined by relative quiet, compared to the neighborhood I grew up in, back in the 1950s, when children were always outside playing. I could go on to say something about the sadness of a child's bike without a child, but the truth is that as soon as Meade offered the bike for free there was a kid right there to take it.

Athanasius Kircher said...

Ann, what you have written is the heart of all true prayer and spiritual practice.

The great secret of spirituality from every great master in the great religious traditions is: awareness, awarenessm, awareness.

The other part of practice and prayer that we dread doing and which all of do without exception is face up to ourselves.

This take enormous courage which is simply another name for faith.

We dread silence and fill it up with sound.

Prayer is more like listening than speaking.

The great Zen master Joko Beck wrote that when you can listen and really hear the traffic, the wind, the leaking faucet the sense of hearing becomes grounded in reality, and once once sense is grounded all the senses are grounded.

Patrick said...

The non-musical sound the needle used to make on an LP.

virgil xenophon said...

1) The sound of a car backfiring--most new ones these days rarely do.

2)The sound of a clock ticking in an otherwise totally silent house..

And from my military experience UNMISTAKABLE sounds that have all but disappeared long ago:

A) The hi-pitched whine (tweet) of the jet engines of a USAF T-37 trainer

B) The metallic squeaking sound of the breaks on a USAF C-124 (Globemaster) cargo aircraft

C) The threshing-machine-coming-apart-sound of the twin radial engines of an Navy/CG SA-16 (Albatross) AirSea rescue Amphibian.

Eclecticity said...

Althouse goes all Zen on us. E.

Anonymous said...

1) The sound of a car backfiring--most new ones these days rarely do.

Another related sound we don't hear any more is someone trying to get their car started in the morning.

Used to be you would try for a while and coax them along to eventually start.

Now, if it doesn't start the first try, there's almost no reason to keep trying. The on-board computer has run out of possible adjustments, so no reason to keep trying.

Amy said...

Just thinking about this exact topic - one sound of summer I will never miss - the endless, shrill shrieking of small children in a swimming pool. Neighbor has pool - grandkids are over, I work at home, office window faces pool. WHY OH WHY do children have to shriek and scream on and on? Not just on entering cold water, but for the duration of the swim. Oh the pain and suffering......

Christy said...

The sound of a broom sweeping

The sound of a treadle sewing machine. (I got to play on that one while the grown-up used the electric one.)

The sound of the ice tray being twisted.

The crunch of a toy being driven over as you back out of the driveway. (A good obsolescence, no question)

The sound of an analog modem connecting!

Ann Althouse said...

@Palladian "Night Call."

Ann Althouse said...

"Just thinking about this exact topic - one sound of summer I will never miss - the endless, shrill shrieking of small children in a swimming pool. Neighbor has pool - grandkids are over, I work at home, office window faces pool. WHY OH WHY do children have to shriek and scream on and on? Not just on entering cold water, but for the duration of the swim. Oh the pain and suffering......"

If this were an episode of "Twilight Zone," you would get your wish and regret it.

Alan said...

Aluminum makes me sad.

Boy, I really agree.

Whose dumb idea was that?


The idea makes sense when you consider the cost of a wooden bat vs. the abuse they take in a season of play. Colleges and high school teams' costs would increase tremendously if they used wooden bats.

Fortunately, the newer BBCOR composite bats--there are few "aluminum bats" anymore--don't have that horrible "ping". They play a whole lot more like a wooden bat. They also don't splinter when you get jammed inside on a fastball.

I agree, though, in a perfect world, there would only be wooden bats.

Ann Althouse said...

"The sound of the ice tray being twisted."

The sound of an older ice tray, made of metal, with a lever that you pull up to crack it.

Bob Ellison said...

The sound of a digital recorder, with a button that you used to rewind, repeating its recording instantly.

Bender said...

WHY OH WHY do children have to shriek and scream on and on?

There is a wooded trail with a creek nearby. Quite often you will hear people (almost always girls) shrieking and screeching from playing in the water. Eventually, after running out to see what the commotion is, you just tune it out and ignore the screams.

Last week, a woman was raped on that trail. She probably shrieked and screamed. And if she did, probably no one paid any attention, too many girls previously having "played wolf."

DADvocate said...

I like about every sound mentioned. Love the sound of a wooden bat hitting the ball, one of the great things about MLB.

I've always enjoyed the drone of a piston engine airplane, especially the big ones. When I was a kid I lived in the center of a horseshoe bend of the Tennesse River. Late at night I would lay in bed and listen to the Myrtle Lee, an old diesel power tug boat, chug up on side, and down the other. I couldn'l hear it at the apex of the bend as hills blocked the sound. I truly loved hearing that thing. It still plies the waters around Knoxville, but under a different name now.

Also, in the quiet of the night I could hear the chimes in the clock tower of Ayres Hall at the University of Tennessee about 5 miles away. I believe it rang the same tune as Westiminister in London. I would lay awake till midnight sometimes, just to hear the deep, resonating sounds.

Unless I'm in my car, I rarely listen to music any more. I like hearing the sounds around me.

Beach Brutus said...

Stretching sound from spring on old sceen door and an ice cream truck in the distance -- but getting closer.

Chip Ahoy said...

Actually, I'm using those metal trays now. Got 'em on eBay. I have the silicone trays too, and they're nice for perfectly cubed ice, but I end up using the metal ones most. They have to thaw a little first. Yesterday I didn't want to wait and I almost broke the handle so I bashed the whole tray and they cranked right out. In little ice shards.

Chip Ahoy said...

Like this: ))) WHAP (((

Leslie Graves said...

Air-conditioned air blowing through the vents.

edutcher said...

It's not the sounds, it's the people and times associated with them.

The old screen door we'd put on in the summer (remember how some houses had a back door for winter?) and the way it slammed.

I can hear blue jays in the woods back of us here and, in the summer, I always think of being at my grandmother's in North Jersey.

And then there's turning the dial on a TV set.

Patrick said...

Stretching sound from spring on old sceen door and an ice cream truck in the distance -- but getting closer.

I just installed one of those screen doors last week. My kids slam it when they hear the ice cream truck coming.

Palladian said...

Althouse, a related theme regarding the rotary phone: the call is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!

Does anyone remember this wonderful sound (and the wonderful scent of the resulting copies)?

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

The chimes/beeps/bells you used to hear in hospitals and large department stores when someone was being paged.

Electric adding machines, remember the sound they'd make when they totaled up a group of numbers? (And remember what the ribbons smelled like?)

Muzak; real, honest to goodness Muzak in a store or a waiting room.

edutcher said...

Ann Althouse said...

Are you taking the trouble to love them before they are gone?

That's the most important point of all.

A lot of times we know things are going well, but you don't realize how happy you may have been until it's gone.

PS The crunch-crunch sound of The Blonde pulling into the driveway (gravel) after driving across PA and NE OH to come see me.

Bob Ellison said...

Some sounds seem eternal, like 3-foot ocean waves crashing and the cardinal's song. Will car screeches go away with the advent of anti-lock breaks and traction-control systems?

The recent fourth of July reminds me that we still like the pop of a good firework.

Palladian said...

I love this sound as well, but I still use Super 8mm film so I still get to hear it.

Christy said...

The sounds of a folding fan as you opened or snapped it closed. I would carry one to the ball park and only put it down to crack a peanut.

Rocketeer said...

All the machine sounds I remember from being a kid, sitting behind the tractor on the dropper, staring up at the back of my grandfather in the driver's seat while my brother and I are dropping tobacco.

Bacon frying in an iron skillet.

The back and forth ZZZZZZZZZZZIIP of my father's handsaw.

Bob Ellison said...

If you had to face a choice, would you give up hearing or seeing?

I'd give up seeing.

Jaske said...

The the tinkle of the bell attached to the store door. It's been replaced by the annoying whoosh/beep sound.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The sound of the jingling bells on the ice cream truck coming through the neighborhood. Quick!!! Hop on your bike and see if you can race around the block to catch him. Plus the sound of the playing cards in the spokes of your bike to make it sound really cool.

@ Palladian. One of my fondest elementary school memories. The smell of the mimeographed papers freshly minted and handed out.

Michael Haz said...

The sound of playing cards brrrrraaapppping against bicycle spokes. Haven't heart that in decades, probably since kid's bicycles these days don't have fenders. The playing cards were held on fender stays with clothes pins.

We were without electricity for a day at my cabin in Vilas County. there was no noise. None. It was remarkable. No well pump, no refrigerator, no ceiling fans, no radio, nothing at all.

We are far from the highway, so there were no car or truck noises. No airplane noises. Just birds, squirrels, loons, and water lapping at the shore.

The lack of noise was wonderful. And it reminded me of why I sometimes wear earplugs if I'm in a mall or other noisy public place.

Michael Haz said...

The sound of Miles Davis' "Kinda Blue" played quietly, lights down, on a gray, foggy evening.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

We have an antique Seth Thomas pillar clock. It was my great X3 grandmother's wedding clock in 1857. Uses lead weights

I love the sound of it tick tocking away and then the soft gong gong striking the hours.

bagoh20 said...

I miss the sound of American optimism and confidence, and knowing it was justified.

"... we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

A. Shmendrik said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

This one isn't exactly a single sound, but as a teenager who often stayed up late, I remember this entire sequence, which was used into the early 1990s.

MadisonMan said...

Bacon frying in an iron skillet.

How is this not a sound you hear now?

I can't be the only person with an cast iron fry pan. (In fact, I just got a new on in the mail yesterday: Link)

ed said...

Well what amuses me are those electronic displays that are featured in movies that make ancient teletype sounds.

But if I miss anything it is probably muzak in elevators. So ubiquitous during my younger years it has largely disappeared. Once it used to annoy me, now it amuses me. Which changed more?

A. Shmendrik said...

I was in Atlanta 3 years ago, at the Fulton County Courthouse, and I heard a typewriter. It was coming from over a partition in the Probate Clerk's Office and I walked around the corner just to be sure I hadn't entered the land that time forgot. They kept the thing around so they could type a message across the back of an envelope - so that any effort to open the sealed document would be apparent from the break in the typed characters.

traditionalguy said...

The sound of real wood burning in a real fireplace and popping like good poplar does and shifting to the bottom as hot coals.

Today we have gas logs, which are cleaner and safer, but they are not what we listened to once, or men did for the last 10,000+ years.

Michael Haz said...

The sound of Ed McMahon introducing Johnny Carson. The sound of Carson's laugh at hearing a great joke.

edutcher said...

bagoh20 said...

I miss the sound of American optimism and confidence, and knowing it was justified.

Amen, brother.

It was outlawed by the anti-war movement.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Nostalgia for the popping sound and then the smell of those flash cubes for taking photos.

A new sound that I will miss is the sound of the ice maker in the refrigerator dumping a load of cubes into the hopper. Sometimes we can hear it, faithfully making ice for us, in the middle of the night. It is a sound that all is well and everything is working.

Annoying sound I would like to get rid of. The damned mocking birds that go off about 4:40 am. They know a lot of different songs and sing them in randomly set patterns. Unlike other song birds where you can get the pattern down and ignore it. The mocking birds are just chaotic cacophony. The only thing to do is put a pillow over your head.

Cedarford said...

Great post by Althouse...just like sights and smells, we have aural memories and when comment is made...it tends to limit the conversation to "sounds of famous musicians or some TV character saying "Dynamite".

Not all the little but memorable sounds in each persons life. They say we remember sights and smells better that sound or tactile feel memories....but they are there.

The "ping!" a wrench made first time a stuck bolt was freed.
The "pussyfarts" your second serious GF made.
First time you heard an elk bugle or a tree crash...
Sound of old AF military teletypes still around well into the computer age.

Rocketeer said...

How is this not a sound you hear now?

I have a cast iron skillet, inherited from my grandmother (good luck on breaking in and seasoning yours, BTW). I do hear it, but only a couple of times a year. Time and convenience make microwave bacon the norm in my household, for the most part. Sad, I know, but I'm not going to make it worse by lying about it.

Michael Haz said...

The sound of a hot-rodded V8 engine idling, especially if it had a hotter camshaft. The lumpa-lumpa-lumpa sound of the exhaust still catches my attention if I hear it at a car show.

Don't see or hear them on the street anymore.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

[Cast iron skillet]
good luck on breaking in and seasoning yours, BTW

Easy peasy. Wash first in a mild soap and water to get any industrial oils off of it. Dry with a paper towel. Heat briefly in the oven. Coat the entire think with a thin coating of vegetable oil. Bake in the oven at 350 or so for 10 minutes.

Repeat several times. Do the same thing each time you use the pan. Or as I do. After washing put it on the stove turn up the heat until completely dry. Take a paper towel with some oil on it. Rub all over the inside of the pan and let it soak in with the heat.

I'm still using my grandmother's cast iron skillets. (I'm 62 so those things are really antiques)

Rocketeer said...

Playing cards in bike spokes.

Do kids do that anymore?

edutcher said...

Michael Haz said...

The sound of Ed McMahon introducing Johnny Carson. The sound of Carson's laugh at hearing a great joke.

Exactly.

Hearing it on tape player or in a rerun ain't the same.

The sounds went with the times.

You'll never hear something like, "He-e-ead 'em up, move 'em out", on a first-run show again.

Rocketeer said...

Easy peasy. Wash first in a mild soap and water to get any industrial oils off of it. Dry with a paper towel. Heat briefly in the oven. Coat the entire think with a thin coating of vegetable oil. Bake in the oven at 350 or so for 10 minutes.

That's a nice start, DBQ, but you and I both know (using our grandmothers') that it takes at least, oh let's say 25 years of use to really get it good and broken in...

Palladian said...

I can't be the only person with an cast iron fry pan.

I have two old black American-made iron fry pans and three old and two newer Le Creuset iron pans (though I don't know if those count since they're enameled iron).

Rocketeer, for a compromise, put your raw bacon in your cast-iron pan, put it in the oven and turn it up to 400º F. Come back about 18-20 minutes later and you have beautiful bacon.

Let the pan cool, pour the grease out while it is still liquid, then wipe the pan with dry paper towels.

SteveR said...

Kids playing outside, whatever version of "allie allie, in come free" is used.

Michael K said...

"2)The sound of a clock ticking in an otherwise totally silent house.."

I have a Seth Thomas mantlepiece clock that I found in a trash can behind an old house when I was a kid. My grandfather cleaned it and got it running. It chimes the quarter hours. I've had it 65 years but don't have a place to put it anymore. I gave it to my younger son. They don't keep it wound.

It's kind of sad that they aren't interested in hearing it chime in the middle of the night. I always liked that sound if I was awake.

I'm getting so I hear less of all those sounds whether they are there or not.

Rocketeer said...

Thanks, Palladian. I think I'll try that.

Please tell me you're saving the grease though. How can you possibly cook green beans properly without bacon grease?

ed said...

Also.

The sound of a canvas bag of ice getting smashed with a small wooden bat to make crushed ice for mojitos. Now everybody uses an appliance for that.

On a side note while I love cast iron fry pans and cookware of all kinds one of the things I really like to cook with are carbon steel pans. They build up a nice patina, heat faster than cast iron, are lighter and easier to move around the stove. And they put a sear on meat like nobody's business.

Anonymous said...

I remember the sound of a baseball game coming in faintly on our car's one-speaker AM radio, as we would be driving into the Summer night out in the mid-west somewhere on I-80.

At night you could pick up a station from a distant city, so you might hear the Cardinals or the Cubs game from the middle of Nebraska.

But I love that unmistakable sound of the crowd in the background at the game, and the announcer leaving plenty of dead air.

Good play by play announcers would do that - they'd sometimes just go silent between pitches. They didn't feel the need to chatter on endlessly to fill the space.

I miss that too. The good ones still do it, though. But not meany left that do.

ed said...

"Please tell me you're saving the grease though. How can you possibly cook green beans properly without bacon grease?"

Or cornbread.

Michael K said...

"I'm still using my grandmother's cast iron skillets. (I'm 62 so those things are really antiques)"

When my mother died in 2001, the only thing of hers I wanted was her iron skillet. I still have it but don't use it much. She was 103 when she died and had used it at least since I was a kid.

MaggotAtBroad&Wall said...

Stropping a straight razor? I suspect many women have never heard this sound live.

Here it is at about the 1:20 mark or so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY46z9I90p0&feature=related

Rabel said...

"What are the sounds you hear now that will soon enough disappear into the history of lost sounds?"

The sound of a rising intonation at the end of almost every sentence in a presidential speech.

chickelit said...

I miss the unique sounds of winter: the crunch of walking on newly fallen snow, the rhythmic scraping of snow shovels against concrete, the whishing sounds that skis make on powdery snow, that sharp, metallic ice-slicing of sound that skates make when you turn sharply; but most of all, I miss the deadening silence during a heavy snowfall--I have not heard that in ages.

MadisonMan said...

Cooks Magazine says to use Linseed Oil in the seasoning process. Six or seven times through the oven to really bake it in. That sounds like a good winter day project.

I'll wait 'til the heat passes here. We still have our 'regular' cast iron skillet until then.

Bender said...

"Please tell me you're saving the grease though. How can you possibly cook green beans properly without bacon grease?"
Or cornbread.


Or scrambled eggs or pan-fried potatoes.

Palladian said...

That's a nice start, DBQ, but you and I both know (using our grandmothers') that it takes at least, oh let's say 25 years of use to really get it good and broken in...

Nonsense. Start with a completely stripped pan. Strip it with a lye-based oven cleaner, (outdoors and with personal protective equipment!), then soak it for no longer than 24 hours in a 50/50 white vinegar and water solution to remove the rust. Rinse THOROUGHLY and dry it in a hot oven. As soon as you do this, you must oil and season it immediately or it will rust again.

Use flaxseed oil (from a health food store, it should be refrigerated). Use only a vanishingly small amount; put a little bit in the pan and wipe it all around so that the pan is completely coated looks dry. Turn your oven up as high as it will go, put the pan in there, then start timing 1 hour when the oven reaches its set heat. After 1 hour, turn the oven off and don't open it. After about 2 hours, when the pan is cool enough to handle, remove it. Repeat the oiling and heating process AT LEAST 6 times.

Yes, yes, it's a pain, but in the end you will have a PERFECTLY seasoned pan, better than anything that grandma could have done in 100 years.

Once the pan is seasoned, never wash it with soap. Wipe it out, or simmer a little water to loosen anything that might stick (little will), then wipe it out. ALWAYS put the pan away dry.

bagoh20 said...

I miss the sound of my lil' sister screaming as I chased her around the house threatening to give her cherry belly, just like my brother gave me. I miss the circle of violence. Now she would call child services and we'd all be strangers.

Bob Ellison said...

I have several cast-iron skillets. The trick is not washing them. My wife would disagree.

Palladian said...

Please tell me you're saving the grease though. How can you possibly cook green beans properly without bacon grease?

Well I don't usually use bacon grease for green beans (boil in a huge pot until cooked but crunchy, plunge into cold water until cold, shake in a hot, dry pan until dry, add a huge lump of butter and sauté until hot), but of course I save it! I almost never throw anything out: bones, trimmings, skin, chicken fat, giblets... it all goes in the freezer to flavor another dish, another day.

rhhardin said...

I get the modem connection sound every day.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Wolfman Jack in the middle of the night from Rosarita Mexico. Driving in a convertible coming back from a hot day in the sun at the beach in Santa Cruz.

Rocketeer said...

Yes, yes, it's a pain, but in the end you will have a PERFECTLY seasoned pan, better than anything that grandma could have done in 100 years.

I'll try your suggestion for baking the bacon, and it's clear you know how to wash iron skillets, but your calumny - CALUMNY I say - against my grandmother's skillet seasoning WILL BE AVENGED.

Rocketeer said...

Also, Palladian, if we're ever at a pot luck dinner together, I will be avoiding your green beans. No offense.

karrde said...

@TraditionalGuy,

I've got friends who occasionally put real wood into real fireplaces.

Last night, I made a fire in a small pit in my back yard. It's a good skill to have, in my opinion.

Palladian said...

Also, Palladian, if we're ever at a pot luck dinner together, I will be avoiding your green beans. No offense.

I don't do pot luck dinners because I don't like to shame the other participants.

But should I ever break down and go to one, I'm glad you'll avoid the beans; more for me.

MadisonMan said...

Or maybe it was flaxseed oil. Is linseed oil edible?

Guess I'll check on that before I use it :)

karrde said...

@Ann,

There's one sound that I remember, and didn't really like.

Old-style TV's, the "big tube" kind, have a piece of electronics that emits a high-pitched whine. So did computer monitors.

I think the frequency is 15,750 Hz or so. It's in the high end of human hearing.

I used to be able to tell whether someone had left the computer monitor on in the next room. Modern LCD's and flat-screen TV's don't have that piece of electronics...

William said...

What kind of weird, sick nostalgia perverts mourn the loss of obsolete noise?...After the hydrogen bomb, I rank the car alarm as the worst invention of the last one hundred years. I long for the day when I can wonder about what happened to those magical nights when I was awakened by a car alarm.

Michael Haz said...

I season cast iron frying pans (after a proper cleaning) by coating them with vegetable oil and then cooking them (repeatedly) in a closed gas grill outdoors. Works perfectly.

Clean them after each use with a scrubber for the hard bits, and hot water. Wipe dry and oil.

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

Steam locomotives and their whistles and their bells. There's no better signal that the economy works and someone's getting something done, and that might be Casey Jones in the cab.

Can't say enough derogatory stuff about these urban-vanity light rail systems, who sneak up silently to mow down pedestrians and automobiles, and cost far more than they're worth.

edutcher said...

chickelit said...

I miss the unique sounds of winter: the crunch of walking on newly fallen snow, the rhythmic scraping of snow shovels against concrete, the whishing sounds that skis make on powdery snow, that sharp, metallic ice-slicing of sound that skates make when you turn sharply; but most of all, I miss the deadening silence during a heavy snowfall--I have not heard that in ages.

Come to NE OH next January. We'll give you all you want as you help us clear the driveway.

Tarzan said...

Old, wooden screen doors slapping gently shut on a hot summer's day full of nothing to do but lie around and wonder what to do.

Rabel said...

The pop of an incandescant light bulb burning out.

Tarzan said...

Okay, so I was late to the game with my screen door in Summer routine.

Fine.

How 'bout the sound of the power steering in the old family wagon as Dad backed out of a parking space?

I...AM NOT A ROBOT!!!

LordSomber said...

The 'clack' of a Radio Shack 8-track deck playing Herb Alpert and assorted 70's muzak as we ate dinner.

The 'flap-flap-flap' sound when a movie reel ends.

The 'ding' sound in between filmstrip slides.

chickelit said...

Don Draper voice-over:

The sound that a Kodak Carrousel slide projector makes as it casts your childhood memories across the screen.

chickelit said...

How 'bout the sound of the power steering in the old family wagon as Dad backed out of a parking space?

Power steering makes noise? Only screeches when the belt slips. I do remember the special sounds that cars made in reverse...sort of high pitched whir.

ndspinelli said...

My bride was recently in the hospital. I spent 3 stints in hospitals as a kid. I remember the CONSTANT pages for docs on the intercom. That is no more and I appreciate that..hospitals are quieter. As they should be.

Astro said...

The soft, scrape-y, plastic-y sound that I used to hear when my wife would open a new L'eggs pantyhose container in the morning. Those pantyhose really seemed sexy, back in those days. And I'd be all day thinking of helping her remove them, too.

Kirk Parker said...

ndspinelli: Aluminum makes me sad.

Quayle: Boy, I really agree. Whose dumb idea was that?

Me: The same folks who came up with the Designated Hitter. Obviously.

Astro said...

A sound soon to be gone - along with the accompanying sense of frustration - is that combination of crinkly cellophane-type sound and the pick-pick-pick sound of my fingernail picking away at that closer-sealer sticker, as I try to open the damn wrapping around a music CD.

MadisonMan said...

Needle scratching across an LP as it plays.

Rialby said...

"as I try to open the damn wrapping around a music CD"

Does anyone remember the smell of new cassette tapes? Man, I was just thinking about that this morning.

Anonymous said...

The phrase that newsmen used to announce an important event during a TV broadcast. I can't remember the exact wording but it was something like, "We pardon the interruption for this important news break."

It's hard to believe that before 24 hour cable news, this was how the networks announced that something important happened. At the time, this meant that a president had been shot or that we were about to be nuked. Thinking about it still aggravates me.

WestVirginiaRebel said...

The sound of a TV remote clicking

Audio cassettes rewinding or fast-forwarding

Dial tones in phones

A TV switching to color bars after the end of a broadcast day with a continuous beep

The sound of a home movie projector playing.

Craig said...

The amplified static scratch of a diamond needle on uncut vinyl for the lap or two it takes before the needle hits the vinyl groove and the music starts playing.

Cellulose Shepherd said...

Remember the sound of opening a can with the old pull tabs. First came a crack then the sound of peeling metal then the tang sound when the tab broke free.