Today Vince and I were talking about the things we get used to and the things that make us stop and take notice. Both of us, almost all our lives lived in neighborhoods where it was not unusual to hear people talking.
This afternoon I walked out to go water in the greenhouse and I heard voices. I stopped . . like instantly . . and listened. Vince had left his radio on in the shop.
We live very close to a large Air Force base and it’s nothing for planes/jets to fly over and rattle our windows. The National Guard is right behind us and sometimes, there are very intense practices going on out there.
We’re used to it and don’t even notice. A couple of years ago when we were having the a/c replaced, guys from out of town were on our roof and the shooting started behind us and I thought those guys were going to jump off the roof. Both said that in a split second, they were thinking about the quickest escape route.
Put me in town with cars and sirens and stereos and barking dogs and I’m definitely out of my comfort zone.
Almost everyone out here around us has cows. One neighbor has a bunch of old rescue donkeys so we hear cows mooing and donkeys braying all the time. My neighbors hear roosters crowing! 🙂
I guess we all get used to whatever is commonplace around us. Being used to bombers flying over our house and machine guns back behind the woods . . I never thought those would be sounds that thought were normal.
Joyce says
When I lived in Chicago, my parents came to visit one time, and at one point my mother said “how do you get used to that?” I replied, “get used to what?” She laughed and said,”never mind.” (There was an airplane going over from O’Hare airport). I also grew up a block from a hospital, and for the longest time I didn’t really “hear” sirens, since we heard them daily as they went to the emergency room. It’s odd how you get used to certain sounds.
Jen says
I live about half mile or so from tracks. When Darin comes down, it drives him nuts. Kinda like his cows drive me crazy when I am at his farm.
dezertsuz says
When we lived in Okinawa in the late sixties, Kadena Air Base was just across a couple of blocks and a highway. The planes would warm up, with backs facing us, and take off, bomb, land to refuel, and come back the next day. There is nothing more comforting to me than the sound of airplane engines – it sounds like protection to me, and never bothers me! I could easily get used to your sounds. =) What I hate are hearing neighbors arguing with spouses, and I’m not especially fond of late night block parties or screaming children, either.