There are a few sounds that we experience in our neighborhood that I quite like. You would think that after living in NYC and Sydney that things would seem too quiet for us in the sticks.
However, we live close to the train tracks - four houses away to be exact. I grew up near the train tracks and so have a fond place in my heart for the train's lulling clickety-clack, the warning bell, and the horn, which surprisingly never seems too loud. We even get a bit of shaking in the house. I have to wonder what it's like at the houses closer to the tracks.
Another sound I've found oddly comforting, though not necessarily familiar, is from the nearby high school. Friday night football games bring the sounds of the marching band, referee's whistles, and the muffled voices of commentators.
This last soothing sound is actually a non-sound. Our town is a little different in that I have never heard the garbage truck on trash day. And we don't even have to take our trash cans to the curb. What happens is this. The garbage truck parks on a side street. Several electric-powered cars, not unlike golf carts, with big hoppers on the back zoom around to everyone's drive-ways collecting the trash and then take it back to the garbage truck. Thus eliminating the need for the garbage truck to drive down the street very often.
I feel a bit of peace and some melancholy from these ordinary noises. Ah, small town life.
However, we live close to the train tracks - four houses away to be exact. I grew up near the train tracks and so have a fond place in my heart for the train's lulling clickety-clack, the warning bell, and the horn, which surprisingly never seems too loud. We even get a bit of shaking in the house. I have to wonder what it's like at the houses closer to the tracks.
Another sound I've found oddly comforting, though not necessarily familiar, is from the nearby high school. Friday night football games bring the sounds of the marching band, referee's whistles, and the muffled voices of commentators.
This last soothing sound is actually a non-sound. Our town is a little different in that I have never heard the garbage truck on trash day. And we don't even have to take our trash cans to the curb. What happens is this. The garbage truck parks on a side street. Several electric-powered cars, not unlike golf carts, with big hoppers on the back zoom around to everyone's drive-ways collecting the trash and then take it back to the garbage truck. Thus eliminating the need for the garbage truck to drive down the street very often.
I feel a bit of peace and some melancholy from these ordinary noises. Ah, small town life.
