Sounds from the past

When I was writing the previous post about things that will soon disappear, it reminded me of sounds that are gone. Ever think of that – things you don’t hear anymore? When was the last time you heard an old fashioned telephone ring or even the sound that a rotary dial makes? You can hear it on cell phones as a mock ring, but what about the real thing? What about a busy signal? You don’t hear them often if at all.

What about the ding of a typewriter, when did you last hear that? And think about a printed newspaper being read; the quiet crinkle of the pages. Almost a thing of that past. The sound of chalk on a blackboard is probably a thing of the past. And the ding of a cash register as it opens. What about the flapping sound that was made at the end of a reel of film on a projector – and the projector sound itself.

There is a museum of endangered sounds. It’s a website, where you click on the image of items and you hear them! The sound of AOL dial-up starting up brings chills to my spine, I don’t know why.  Sounds trigger memories like smell does.

One day I was lying out at the beach and every other minute it seemed that a plane flew overhead and I thought of what it might have been like years ago without that. Imagine the world 100 or more years ago. There was no sound of planes flying overhead or leaf blowers or lawn mowers or air conditioners or things like that. Life was peaceful, albeit it probably stank of horse manure every time you went out on the streets. But you would hear the sound of a babbling brook or horse shoes clopping on the ground or the wind blowing. There wasn’t much noise pollution 100 years ago.

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