Church Bells This Morning - Noisy Church Bells Are OK with Me

[MineralMan]

Right across the street from our townhome is a Catholic church. We moved here almost two months ago and I had noticed a bell tower on the church, but we heard no bells. This week, that changed.

Apparently, they fixed the automatic bell player last week. Suddenly, the daily noon mass is being announced with a long, discordant peal. Not musical, and the same every time, which tells me that the bells are played by a computer or other automatic means.

The bells are played just before the mass begins, so twice on Sunday and daily the rest of the week.

I don't mind, actually. They're very loud, since the church is right across the street from our place and the bells are large. I'm sure some people are bothered, in the same way they are bothered by the traffic noise on the four-lane arterial street where we live. I'm not bothered, though, despite not being religious in any way.

People have the right to worship as and if they please. 30 seconds of bell-ringing does not have much of an impact on my life, so I am not bothered by it. People also have the right to travel as they choose, so street noise doesn't bother me, either.

It reminds me of my 15-month time in Samsun, Turkey while serving in the USAF. My barracks window looked out on a steep hill in the town, with a mosque and minaret about halfway down that hill. Five times a day, the call to prayer rang out from that minaret, delivered by someone with an amplified voice that was very loud and very unmusical. Like the bells across my street now, that became part of the clockwork of the day.

I was not bothered then, and am not bothered now.

[Polly Hennessey]

1. Are you sure?

[MineralMan]

3. Yes, I'm sure.

It takes a lot more to bother me than church bells.

[EYESORE 9001]

4. Please elaborate on those things that bother you

I’ll take notes.

[MineralMan]

7. Why?

I'd rather say what doesn't bother me, but that seems to bother some people.

[luvs2sing]

2. The only being I've ever known..

to be bothered by church bells is my traumatized rescue dog, but he was terrified of absolutely everything after we brought him home. He had spent most of the first year of his life in a rural shelter, so every damn thing in our city neighborhood was new and terrifying, right down to planes flying over and, yes, church bells. We get them from two churches, each a block away, plus chimes from the state school for the blind about a quarter mile away. The chimes are particularly lovely, and I often try to time my morning walk so I’m walking nearby when they play. I love hearing all of them.

After ten years? The dog doesn’t give a darn about any of it. Took a looooong time and love, but not much phases him these days.

[3catwoman3]

5. I lived on base at Yokota AB in Japan for 2 years.

The massive C-5s assigned there always had their engines running, in case they needed to take off at a moment’s notice.

One acclimated to the constant hum very quickly, and would only become aware of silence on the rare occasions the engines were turned off. “Hey, listen - it’s quiet!”

The town my husband grew up in on Long Island had a very obnoxious siren that went off every day at noon. It sounded like a sick cow bellowing.

[MineralMan]

8. Tom Robbins wrote a 1976 book, "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"

In it, one character referred to things like bells and other things that happened as part of "the clockworks." I found that interesting. Life is full of recurrent things that mark our days. After a time, we stop noticing them, but we immediately notice if they stop happening.

Ever since I read that book, I've noticed things that make up "the clockworks" around me.

[Farmer-Rick]

6. When moving to a new house I lived in an apartment for a short time

The apartment was very cheap because it was like 10 feet from the railroad tracks. We were informed of this defect. The train only came by once a day at 2 am, (Yes, in the morning when most people are asleep) and there was a crossroads there so by law it had to blow its whistle, sometimes. But the crossing gates always clanged and came down while red lights flashed.

After the first couple of nights, I would sleep through it. I didn't even notice it anymore. I surprised myself by not even noticing it after a few nights. My spouse, on the other hand, never got use to it, woke up everytime, even with earplugs and blinds drawn.

Some people are good at ignoring obnoxious and irritating sounds and some not so much

I think loud religious bells should be regulated and controlled. And property values should reflect it. And realestate agents should warn people of the noise defect. Most irritating noises are regulated in cities and towns, so should god worshipping noise signals.

[MineralMan]

10. The house we had before this one for 17 years

was two blocks from some railroad tracks. About four freight trains a day used those tracks, and their passing was quite loud. I was even able to identify the different locomotives that pulled those trains by their individual sounds. We weren't informed of that when we bought the house. We got used to the trains very quickly, and they became just another part of our local environment.

[Farmer-Rick]

11. Geez, you should have been warned.

But yeah, I can understand getting use to it, especially if it is a regular noise.

[GusBob]

9. Ask not for whom the bell tolls

Nothing more iconic than bells ringing on a brisk autumn morning

Or more gloomy than a dreary winters evening