I was posting on a video forum and thought about my beloved professional monitor that made a loud thump when you turned it on because it had a built in degausser.
Other sounds I miss:
The static when tuning in radio stations and the satisfaction of getting a clear signal.
Similar with playing with the rabbit ears when you switched TV channels. Snow, snow, snow…oh…a bit a picture…snow, snow, gotta start again!
The playing of the national anthem when the TV stations when off air, then choosing one of the other two channels and finding one is still showing the late, late, late movie!
Cleaning a record a second or third time and hearing the pops and crackles fade away.
Watching the little dot on the TV fade when you turn it off.
The street-cleaning crews where I used to live 20 years ago. They’d come out after midnight and you’d hear them as you fell asleep. They’d hose down the street or square and then sweep. Probably not for everbody, but I used to love the sounds of spraying, splattering and sweeping in the still of the night.
The smell of the coffee on the old fashioned stove top perculater with the glass bubble you could see when it was changing to its dark color it was ready. .
My grandparents lived in east Baltimore in an old house that had no A/C. I remember spending the night there during the summer, windows open, listening to the church bells chiming the hour. It was a comforting sound, but I’m pretty sure none of the churches ring their bells any longer - at least not all night.
We lived near a bombing range when I was little. Technically a safe distance away but stuff still happened. I have newspaper clippings of some of these. One clipping describes the 2nd oopsie in a week in one town. The 2nd took out one guy’s well. The other one hit a cemetery … not killing anyone who wasn’t dead already. Sure, no explosives in them, but if something falling thousands of feet weighing hundreds of pounds hits you, it would not go well.
In addition to the sonic booms (which prompted us to go outside to watch the dogfights), there was the convoy of trucks with sirens blaring passing thru town to go out into the boondocks to recover something … that we were told not to ask anymore questions about, got it?
That as a kid I found such stuff “fun” says a lot about kids. Speaking of kids …
One thing I’ve been missing recently is watching kids play outside. They just don’t seem to do that anymore around here.
I can hear a foghorn from my house. I’ve heard it every 10 seconds for the last 20 years. People who visit me sometimes say “how can you sleep with that foghorn going off?” and I say “what foghorn”? I don’t even notice it any more unless someone points it out.
About 10 years ago some adjustment was made to the foghorn that made it less audible here on land. A bunch of people complained that they couldn’t hear the foghorn anymore! So the foghorn was readjusted again to make sure the neighbors could hear it.
Up to the 60’s and 70’s, Honolulu International Airport (yes, I know, talking about Hawaii again :D) was open air, and you could stand and watch the planes take off from the second floor. This was a full sensory experience. You would count the number of plane windows and wave at who you THINK is the person leaving (they’d sometimes flash a sign or wave something to prove it’s them). You’d hear the roar of the engines reving up and smell and taste the jet fuel. Then as the plane turned, you’d feel the air blast of the engines and the debris hitting your body, waiting until the last possible moment before ducking behind the wall. It was a glorious moment when I was old and brave enough not to duck or turn away and being able to watch the full taxi and sometimes take-off through teary eyes (it was always the air that debris that made you cry! :rolleyes:)
This is not from the deep past; instead, it was probably only about 5 years ago that Jeopardy! changed the background sounds they use when they are putting the dollar figures up on the board for the Jeopardy and Double Jeopardy rounds. It used to be a somewhat random-sounding collection of electronic boops and beeps compared to whatever quieter, unmemorable sound cue they use now. I still “hear” the boops and beeps when I’m watching the show and they are setting up the board.
Per usual, I am not bringing any sort of unique insight to the Internet here; on quick search I see that reddit covered this years ago, and someone has put up the sequence on YouTube with the title “Beep Boop”.
I mentioned this in another thread, but it’s been awhile since I’ve thought about it, let alone heard it, but the replay knocker in a pinball machine. One of the most satisfying sounds I’ve ever heard.
With regard to the modem connecting, that would just raise my blood pressure with impatience because I’m anticipating waiting way too long for data to paint my screen.
I live in downtown Denver, next to a church, and their bells still ring, even at night (although I don’t know if it goes all night - I’m pretty regularly in bed by 10 pm). I like it, too.
I miss the morning sounds of lofty, colonial San Cristóbal de La Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.
Roosters squawk the darkness away. Pastors launch holy skyrockets to explode with the dawn. Propane-tank trucks roll the cobbled streets dragging anti-sparking chains that clatter loudly. Bottled water delivery trucks roll with RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD blasting from speakers. If you’re out of gas or drinking water and you hear those sounds, run out and flag down a delivery.
The corner bakery opens its doors to emit fragrant scents. Vendors of meats, veggies, and roasted snacks set up down the street. Crowds of uniformed kids swarm the wide sidewalks to church school, chattering. Political cars blast messages from BIG speakers. Here come the propane and water trucks again! Nobody sleeps late.
Don’t forget the taxis. Most cas here are taxis. The drivers honk. And honk. And more. The marketplaces provide their own sensory overloads. Drop me there blindfolded and I’ll know exactly where I am.
In the 70s on a Saturday night in the middle of the summer falling asleep next to the wide open window of my second floor bedroom (no a/c) listening to the roar of the modifides at the local clay track that was about a mile away.
I miss the sound of meadowlarks. The fields of the Santa Clara Valley used to be full of them. Of course the fields are gone now. There are Eastern Meadowlarks here but I haven’t heard them.
Also ice cream trucks. It’s been fifty-odd years since I lived in a suburban neighborhood, so ice cream trucks are a sound from childhood for me.
Children playing in the streets. Not boulevards, residential streets. You know, outside your house. Especially on Christmas morning when all the kids in the neighborhood were out with their new bikes and skates, and baseballs and basketballs and all the rest. Apparently it’s criminal now. If you’re of the opinion that reducing that particular “noise” is a good thing, you don’t get to play. Children playing and yelling and laughing is the most beautiful sound in the world. Kids don’t take their new, insular electronic devices outside to play. Makes me very sad.
