1. "The hum of power lines. You can't hear them anymore."
I don't think the average neighborhood power lines ever hummed,
but you get to the high voltage lines that feed all the neighborhoods,
you've got some hum. If you heard humming, it probably came from
transformers up on the poles, as wires don't hum.
2. "The ding-ding when you drove over the hose in a filling station that
alerted the horde of workers to fill your tank, wash your windows, and
check your tire pressure and oil."
3. "Busy signals." I hear them all the time, especially on my landline.
4. "That clacking noise from film projectors in the classrooms."
5. "Coins going into a payphone."
6. "In my small hometown in the Midwest, the town's fire whistle would
blow each day at noon. Ha! Do younger people even know that fire whistles
were used to call volunteer firefighters to the station when needed?"
If you live in Baltimore County Maryland, you'll hear them!
Acushnet MA
7. "Newspaper pages turning."
8. "Sonic booms." That's because the FAA
does not allow faster-than-the-speed-of-sound flight over the United States,
unless for shows or other exceptions.
9. "The clunk that a cigarette vending machine made when you pulled on
the knob of the brand you wanted."
10. "The ka-chunk-chunk of those manual credit card machines."
11. "When I was a high schooler, people drove around with the car
windows down during the summer, listening to the same radio station.
When they stopped at the stoplight, you'd hear people singing along
to the same song in their cars. I know there are still radio stations,
but this never happens nowadays."
12. "The late-night television signoff test-pattern."
13. "The ticking of a wind-up clock." 13: Good
riddance, One of the most annoying noises in existence.
14. "The sound of that thing stores used to stamp sale prices."
15. "The scratch of a needle hitting a record. Luckily, my kids are huge vinyl freaks, so I get to hear that sound again."
16. "A manual pencil sharpener."
17. "Pagers beeping."
18. "The metal rod that stuck out the side of the fender and scraped
the curb if you were too close while parking. I don't know why they
got rid of those; they were very useful."
They are known as "curb feelers".
19. "Camera shutters and the sound that flashbulbs made when they fired off. And VHS tapes rewinding."
20. "The sound of slamming the receiver!"
21. "The rhythmic sound of a mimeograph machine."
22. "I don't think I've heard a car backfire in the last 30 years."
23. Lastly: "Insects. Summer used to be filled with the sounds of bees and
other insects going about their lives. It's rare these days to hear or see
insects. I don't think people realize how close we are to collapse thanks
to pesticide overuse." Dunno where she lives,
but she can have some of ours! :-)
And these came from the comment section:
24. My mom told me that when she was little every night at ten-o-clock
the TV would play this thing that was like “it’s ten-o-clock do you
know where your children are?”
25. In my part of the world I miss the sound of 2 kinds of
birds we use to hear in the summer Whip por Wills and
Mourning doves. We occasionally hear the doves but sadly
no more Whip por Wills.
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