Sounds of the past

[BlueTrain]

Something, don't know what, made me think about sounds that we might have commonly heard when we were little but no longer do for one reason or another. I suppose we might still hear church bells if we happen to live near enough to a church that does that. We could hear the bells from the Methodist church in my home town, at least in cold weather. But other sounds?

How about the sound of a screen door slamming? I doubt many people even have screen doors with a spring that produces that distinctive double slapping sound when little boys run out of the house.

I can barely remember the sound of horses in my hometown, which is to say, the sound of horseshoes on pavement. I haven't heard that since one late afternoon when I was visiting with friends in Alexandria, Virginia, and some horse-drawn vehicle went down the street with a clippity-clop sound, which is a curiously comforting sound.

Another sound I recall was a whistle, blown at various times during the day from some local plant, which I assume was to signal starting time, lunch time and quitting time. I never heard that anywhere else.

There are probably other sounds that I've forgotten that one never hears anymore.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was an air raid siren on a pole on my street that went off every day at 11:30 am -- the "dinner whistle" -- and again at 9:15 pm for curfew, at which time every person under the age of 16 was required to be off the streets. If you were standing in front of the pole when it went off, your ears rang for the rest of the night.

Gas station driveway bells were very distinctive in their ringing. When our station closed, I took the bell out and replaced the air-pressure switch with an ordinary pushbutton, and to this day I use it as my doorbell.

My grandparents' toilet had an unmistakable violent flush, followed immediately by the water groaning and banging in the pipes as the tank refilled. Never heard that anywhere else. Their refrigerator, an old Gibson, also had a very distinctive vibrating, tremulous whirr that I've never heard from another.

AM radio static on a clear night is a sound almost totally lost, between the abandonment of nighttime radio listening and the pollution of the band by electronic hash from computers, dimmers, and fluorescent light ballasts.

The wet hiss that came out of a can of Spam as you gave the opening key the first turn.

The springs creaking on a mechanical adding machine as you cycle the handle.

The loud clacking of a Type 2 telephone dial, and the accompanying noise bursts it generated in the radio if you didn't have it filtered.

We still have a guy who delivers vegetables from an old horse-drawn milk wagon, and the horse still makes that noise on the pavement, when it's not drowned out by the sound of blatting horns and revving engines.

 

[Harp]

We still have a guy who delivers vegetables from an old horse-drawn milk wagon, and the horse still makes that noise on the pavement, when it's not drowned out by the sound of blatting horns and revving engines.

When I was a kid on Chicago's South side a horse drawn wagon delivered milk, and the knife/scissors sharpener pushed a cart through the neighborhood-both made distinctive sounds and memories.

 

[ChiTownScion]

We had a small Army missile facility near our home, and every day a UH-1 Huey copter would fly overhead with the mail delivery. A very unique staccato sound: my dad said that it reminded him of the V-1 buzz bombs flying over London during the War.

 

[ChiTownScion]

When I was a kid on Chicago's South side a horse drawn wagon delivered milk, and the knife/scissors sharpener pushed a cart through the neighborhood-both made distinctive sounds and memories.

I remember those carts: every few feet that they'd be pushed a gong bell would sound.

 

[BlueTrain]

I do remember the sound of a bell at a gas station but I haven't heard it in ages. Obviously not since self-serve gas stations became the rule. Cans still make the same hissing sound when you open them. It's been a while since I've heard the sound of a mechanical adding machine. It's a very satisfying sound, somehow, sort of the same way the sound of a hammer makes as it drives home a nail is satisfying to hear (at least for a while).

Another sound out of the past is a typewriter, which was the background noise in the old movies with a scene in a newsroom. Also the sound of a telephone being dialed. Although not a real-life sound, the sound of the voice at the other end of the telephone that you heard in the movies was always funny sounding, probably intentionally so.

Another sound associated with an office from the 1950s (which was probably exactly the same as it had been twenty years earlier, if not longer, was the distinctive sound of an office door closing, when there were no carpets and the door had a glass window. It had a particular rattling sound that nothing else makes.

When drug stores and department stores had lunch counters, there was always a distinctive background noise of clinking dishes. Lunch counters are something rare now as are coin-operated pay phones which somehow had made a funny clunking-clinking bell-like sound when you deposited coins. I've ridden streetcars but I don't remember any clang, clang, clang or ding, ding, ding.

Not all sounds that come to mind are necessarily pleasant or remind you pleasant things but there are many that do. The same thing is true for smells, or rather, aromas, but those are difficult to put in words.

One of the enjoyable aspects of the old radio shows was the sound effects. Although nothing necessarily special in and of themselves, just hearing the sounds made your mind work a little more and made the show a little more enjoyable. Probably the best known of all radio sound effects was the clatter when Fibber McGee opened his closet door, which I think happened in just about every episode. But two shows and maybe three always started with a phone ringing. One was Duffy's Tavern (Duffy ain't here!) and the other was Lum and Abner (the Jot-em-down store). You heard phone conversations a lot on Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (the man with the action-packed expense account) but I don't remember if the episodes started that way.

Funny how we remember sounds from radio as well as sounds from our real lives.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The "telephone box" was a standard-issue piece of sound effects equipment in radio. It usually incorporated a prop phone, with dial and receiver, mounted on top of, but not actually connected to, a ringer box that could be activated by either a push button wired to a transformer or a magneto crank. In the case of programs where the entire cast consisted of two performers sitting at a table, the performers themselves would handle the box and create the effects as needed.

Correll and Gosden (Amos 'n' Andy) re-enacting a broadcast for a film short in 1941. Note the phone box ready for use on the table between them.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

The tinkly tune played by the ice cream truck in summer, and the feeding frenzy it set off with the neighborhood kids.

 

[BlueTrain]

You always astonish me, Miss Lizzie.

 

[Fading Fast]

The sound of a baseball game on the radio coming out of a store front or someone's porch or five guys huddled around a parked car with the game turned up loud enough for them to hear takes me right back to being a kid. While games are still on the radio, the combination of most games being televised, the ubiquitousness of TVs and, for those who do listen "on the go" or away from a TV, the use of earbuds has made this very late spring, summer early fall sound all but disappear. I happened to hear a ballgame on the radio the other day walking by a storefront in the city - took me right back to being a kid in the late '60s.

My grandmother's steam kettle. We just heat water in the microwave today.

Mentioned above, but when I first started working, offices were a loud cacophony of typewriters and, on Wall Street, newswire machines, adding machines, conveyor belt systems for trade tickets, vacuum tube systems and - if you were near the "print shop -" an industrial sound of heavy machinery making copies. Offices - at least where the office grunts worked - were pretty noises places. You noticed this distinction when you had to deliver something to the executive suite floors which had a quiet, somber sound - especially in contrast. Now, financial offices are very quiet places. Even trading floors - which used to be full of screaming voices creating a constant and recognizable din have an eerie quiet as all types of electronic messaging and desk to desk intercoms have eliminated the need to, not only yell but even, talk out loud.

The "fade in" of a vacuum tube radio starting up where, after a delay as the tubes warm up, there is a brief moment (a second or two) of the voices coming on as they increase in volume and clarity.

The rustle of newspapers broken by the occasional snap of a page being "straightened" as large groups of people - commuters being a great example - all read quietly.

Also mentioned above, but the double "bing" as your front and then back tires rode over the bell trigger at a gas station is a sound I haven't heard in, at least, thirty years.

Conductors on trains making change from metal change machines attached to their belts. Maybe they still do that as I haven't been on a commuter train in decades, but on Amtrak which I have been on, I don't recall this happening anymore.

The sound of an old fashion cash register - solid mechanical cluck of each number of a price being entered and then a crescendo of metal as the total is calculated - punctuated by a bell - as the end number popped up in a window at the top of the machine.

 

[Harp]

The sound of a baseball game on the radio coming out of a store front or someone's porch or five guys huddled around a parked car with the game turned up loud enough for them to hear takes me right back to being a kid. While games are still on the radio, the combination of most games being televised, the ubiquitousness of TVs and, for those who do listen "on the go" or away from a TV, the use of earbuds has made this very late spring, summer early fall sound all but disappear. I happened to hear a ballgame on the radio the other day walking by a storefront in the city - took me right back to being a kid in the late '60s.

Offices - at least where the office grunts worked - were pretty noises places. You noticed this distinction when you had to deliver something to the executive suite floors which had a quiet, somber sound - especially in contrast. Now, financial offices are very quiet places. Even trading floors - which used to be full of screaming voices creating a constant and recognizable din have an eerie quiet as all types of electronic messaging and desk to desk intercoms have eliminated the need to, not only yell but even, talk out loud.

Conductors on trains making change from metal change machines attached to their belts. Maybe they still do that as I haven't been on a commuter train in decades, but on Amtrak which I have been on, I don't recall this happening anymore..

Listened to the Cubs and Cincinnati Reds last nite on 670*AM, but cannot recall the last time I heard a game broadcast in public.
The Chicago Board of Trade open outcry bidding and the attendant Runyonesque denizens therein.
And some conductors on the Rock Island still use a belt fixed metal changer though these once familiar devices are seldom seen.

 

[Frunobulax]

How about the sound of a screen door slamming? I doubt many people even have screen doors with a spring that produces that distinctive double slapping sound when little boys run out of the house.

I have purposely not replaced the back screen door on my house, built in 1896, for that very reason.

The tinkly tune played by the ice cream truck in summer, and the feeding frenzy it set off with the neighborhood kids.

When I was a kid, the Ice Cream Man (Freezer Fresh, or Mr. Softee) just rang a singular bell.

Ding!

You could hear it for a couple of blocks.

Ding!

You knew the route, and you knew when it would get to your house based on where it was.

Ding!

Which gave you time to ask Dad for a quarter for an ice cream.

The sound of a baseball game on the radio coming out of a store front or someone's porch or five guys huddled around a parked car with the game turned up loud enough for them to hear takes me right back to being a kid. While games are still on the radio, the combination of most games being televised, the ubiquitousness of TVs and, for those who do listen "on the go" or away from a TV, the use of earbuds has made this very late spring, summer early fall sound all but disappear. I happened to hear a ballgame on the radio the other day walking by a storefront in the city - took me right back to being a kid in the late '60s.

No better way in the world to enjoy baseball. I still sit and listen on an old AM radio when I'm outside. I'll often use the MLB app on my iPhone, but I still listen to the broadcast that way.

And a singularly personal one. When I was a kid, Dad would whistle when it was time for dinner or time to come home. That man could whistle. You could hear it for a few blocks, I swear, and you always knew it was him by the pitch and "cadence." If I heard that sound right now, I'd likely get up from where I'm at and instinctively head to my childhood home.

 

[scottyrocks]

. . . as are coin-operated pay phones which somehow had made a funny clunking-clinking bell-like sound when you deposited coins.

And the whoosh and clunk of a bi-fold phone booth door being closed.

I almost never hear the distinctive sound of an air-cooled flat four engine, although that may be remedied as I have found an acceptable old Volkswagen that I am about to buy.

 

[emigran]

You always astonish me, Miss Lizzie.

Historian to the known (and very often unknown) world...

 

[emigran]

Back in the day one could tell if it was a Buick or Oldsmobile or Chevy or... just by the sound of the engine as it passed by... today you can't even tell what kind of car it is by staring at it,,,!!

 

[BlueTrain]

Although we are reminded of some of these "obsolete sounds" when we watch an old movie, many of the sounds in the movies were actually sound effects, added because of the limitations of the recording technology. About all that was "real" was the sound of the actors and actresses and the music, although the music would have been added unless the movie included a musical number. In some cases, as you probably know, even singing voices were added because of the actor or actress was not a good singer or at least wasn't believed to be one. But usually sounds like car engines were added, which is one reason they don't often sound right.

I also remember the sound of old-fashioned cash registers. One local corner store of the sort that preceded 7-11 stores had a little box attached to the side of the cash register where the clerk would put the sales tax when you bought something.

 

[BlueTrain]

Oh, sure you can tell what kind of car it is just by looking at it and sometimes, you can tell everything you need to know about the driver just by what model it is. It might help to read the bumper stickers, too.

 

[Frunobulax]

Also, the comments about gas station bells stirred another memory.

I live in Ohio which, when I was a kid, was dominated by Sohio stations (Standard Oil of Ohio). They would sponsor the temperature announcement on the radio, accompanied by a certain sound. Hard to describe, kind of like an electronic sound which would echo through your radio. Accompanied by the tagline, "Boron with Ice-guard! You go, or we pay the tow!). When I hear that sound, it means COLD to me, as it only ran in the winter (and I was usually getting ready for school).

Several years ago, I went off on the Intertubes to try to find that sound. I figured somebody would have a downloadable version. Didn't find it, but I ran across a description of it somewhere, and wrote the person on that website a note. Turned out he was the guy that created that sound. He sent me a disk and I have it to this day, and it's on my hard drive.

And sonovagun, here it is! You can hear the sound echoing in the background at the beginning of the commercial.

 

[Frunobulax]

Some obsolete sounds that are not heard today still pervade. As an example, it's still common to have the sound of a needle scratching across a record to symbolize something being ended abruptly.

 

[BlueTrain]

Does NBC still have their three tone "fanfare" (for lack of a better word)?