Alarms and Tick-Tocks





This morning came the sound of heavy doors slamming shut, and the whinging and screaming of a fire alarm as it flashed its searing white light throughout the retirement home. I lurched forward, grabbing my notebook and purse. "Shouldn't we go?" The octogenarians around the table smiled and shook their heads. "It's just a drill," said Louise. "They'll come get us if they need to." And so my class stayed put, calmly writing in their notebooks while that horrific yap kept on for ten long minutes. "Glad I left my hearing aid upstairs," said Alice.

Brain-rattled by the lights and blare, I was remembering an event when I was ten. Locked out of my grandmother's house, I sat for half an hour on the front porch with my hands on my ears while Ganno's burglar alarm railed and shrilled for miles and miles.

Me, I don't even like loud clocks. Happily there's a clock sound in my house that I love. The wood clock in the front hall offers a gentle, resonant wick of a tick. It's a nickering snap, like the nocking of an arrow, quiet and satisfying and precise.

What are the sounds you love? How about the daily sounds you may or may not notice unless all is quiet? Write about the sounds that please as well as those that alarm, annoy or disturb.

1 comment:

  1. Wow! That is a great photo!

    Thanks for all of the writing ideas and inspirations. I check in often and look forward to reading your thought for the day.

    ReplyDelete

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