What are sounds from your childhood you fondly recall?

[Deja Q]

Mum had this cool electric can opener, whose whirring noise was so cool.

The Hankscraft brand vaporizer was VERY relaxing. It was bought in 1968 and worked until 1999 when it finally failed. :cry: It was made out of hard plastic and was reliable. I have bought THREE vaporizers since, none of which lasting more than a year and are made out of cheap, flimsy plastic.

The homemade fan for the window has a cool sound as well. It's been working since its original construction in the mid-80s; I expect replacement fans not to last nearly as long.

What are your favorite sounds, and equipment that made them that were probably better built than what's being sold since 1994? :rofl: (The last good VCR I bought was in 1994; it lived for 6 years. Subsequent VCRs lasted appx 2 years each, medium use. My parents had a 'Montgomery Ward' branded VCR that lasted 19 years, without fail.)

[SmokingJacket]

1. The sound of a Volkswagen bug engine.

I loved that, that high-pitched whirring purr.

[rug]

2. Steam heat on a cold morning.

[Xipe Totec]

3. The sound of our homemade cannon

punching a paper slug through three inches of yellow pine.

Ah.... good times.

[China_cat]

4. Laying in bed at night at my grandparents'

and hearing the mixed sounds of the music from the skating rink and the pins falling from the bowling alley. Both establishments were across the street from the house and even in winter you couldn't help but hear them.

[Monk06]

24. That's a magic memory right there !!!!!

[Parche]

5. Sounds

"You are so big...." Oh wait that was last night!!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[cobalt1999]

6. the sound of a couple of big inboard engines on dads old cabin cruiser

combined with the smell of diesel fumes and salt water takes me back to the 60's.

[Zookeeper]

27. Freighters tooting their fog horns....

(Great Lakes), then a similar sound when I lived near the Pacific Ocean. Now, being inland, trains and their horns are a comforting sound.

On edit: Wrong place, sorry!

[GenDem]

7. Hearing the train whistle,

while I was in bed, when I slept over at my Aunt's house. Sometimes when I hear a distant train whistle it brings me right back to that happy time.

I also loved the summer sound of the Cicada singing. When I hear it I feel like I'm ten years old, again.

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. The Mourning Doves in the early dawn

As a kid, would often get up at sunrise just to go outside, sit on the swing, and listen to the waking day. The mourning doves would always be the first to stir.

Other sounds:

The Dong-Dong-Dong chime of NBC.

My mom's sewing machine.

Country fried chicken sizzling in the kitchen.

[lost-in-nj]

15. My Mourning Doves

coo all day....
Its the bastard blue jay that wakes me up at 5:30!!!


I LOVE my doves...
When I put my birdseed out I throw some on the ground for them
they are ground feeders
lost

[Inchworm]

18. Too funny!

That was one of my reasons for taking up birdwatching - to identify that screaming Blue Jay by sound. I guess if I would have rolled over and looked out the window, I could have identified it without a book. A good friend turned me on to the hobby and it rocks (so does she)!

:)

[Joe Fields]

9. Me playing in the woods, and hearing my mom call me in for supper.

[Inchworm]

10. Fire whistle at the volunteer fire dept

Any time of day it meant there was something to do. Hop in the jeep, chase the trucks, and grab a rake to help put out a brush fire usually.

[lost-in-nj]

12. I remember that

We use to have to get off the street because we had a
couple of firemen living down the block and they
would come racing down the street

Now my son is a volunteer.... but we don't have the siren anymore...
people complained about the noise.....

I remember the sound of the bug sprayer man....
He would go up and down the streets spraying mosquitoes.....
and we would run behind his truck in the fog :scared: :scared:


lost

[Adsos Letter]

11. Rainbird sprinkler.

Hot summer, early, early morning, quiet, warm...we had this portable rainbird sprinkler my dad used to put on the lawn...tic-tic-tic-ttttttttt-tic-tic...I could hear it from my room.

[quiet.american]

13. Church bells at 6pm. n/t

[leftofthedial]

14. church bells

sonic booms

my grandparents' ticking clock

[lizerdbits]

16. Crickets chirping with no traffic

We lived on a not so well traveled road so cars going by were rare. Before we had AC I fell asleep to crickets and woke up to chirping birds in the morning. I can do that now but I live in a more densely populated area so I can hear other peoples AC units, cars, etc.

[mainegreen]

17. The sounds of the pans clanging, meals sizzling, and the chef yelling at the sous chefs.

[femmocrat]

19. Bees buzzing.... remember bees?

I loved to "lay out" (sunbathe) and listen to the bees in the clover. It was so peaceful then... no one mowing 24/7 (like now)..... People used push mowers back then and they were quiet!

[unsavedtrash]

20. mom making coffee in the percolator.

That and other rattlings she made in the kitchen every morning.

[mentalsolstice]

21. The ice cream truck! n/t

[x-g.o.p.er]

22. Watching the Minnesota Vikings games with my Dad

He's old now, and it is my fervent hope that they will win the Super Bowl before he passes. One of the greatest highlights of my life would be to watch a winning Vikings Super Bowl with my Dad.

[Oeditpus Rex]

23. My cousin Richard playing the piano

He was in a band called the Tridents — this was circa 1961 or '62 — and they covered a couple of B. Bumble and the Stingers tunes, "Bumble Boogie" and "Nut Rocker."

(B. Bumble specialized in taking classics and standards and rocking them, with a keyboard emphasis. "Bumble Boogie" was based on "Flight of the Bumblebee" and "Nut Rocker" on... crap. Can't think of the name of it. x( )

[Gormy Cuss]

25. Fog horns

not to be confused with the sound of Foghorn Leghorn...

[FloridaJudy]

30. I'll second fog horns

Growing up near San Francisco, those were my childhood lullabies.

And train whistles. There's something romantic about train whistles. We lived near the old Union Pacific train station, and I used to fantasize about where the trains were taking people on their night journeys. The sound of airplanes taking off are not nearly as pleasant.

[guitar man]

26. A low flying airplane

My Dad was a truck driver, Teamster, back when a hard working man's dollar had some buying power. His love was flying though, he was a highly accomplished private pilot and always had a small airplane, Cessna 172 for a long time among others.

Anyway, he took a transfer to Dallas for a while but we still lived on the farm in Oklahoma. When Dad would come home, we knew when he got there because he'd just about pull the shingles off the roof :wow:

that meant for mom or my big brother to get in the car and drive over to our local airfield and pick him up:)

[MonkeyFunk]

28. The steam radiator clanking and rattling....

the handheld electric mixer (which also fucked up the TV reception) which meant the potatoes were being mashed and dinner was almost ready.

Baseball on the radio

my folks laughing at Johnny Carson while I lay upstairs in bed

[BlueJazz]

29. My Mom: SWEET JESUS!...YOUR ROOM LOOKS LIKE A HERD OF PIGS..

...HELD AN ORGY IN HERE!!

Son...Clean this mess up or you can forget about using the Car on Saturday.


Music to my ears...(really)

[Roon]

31. Humming birds

at the family cabin.