The Sounds of Summer

As opposed to the Simon & Garfunkel hit "The Sound of Silence", from late 1965.

We are winding down the last days of a long, hot summer in our area. The children have been back in school for a few weeks, older students have gone back to college, and I am still retired. Thankfully.

When I was a child, school did not begin until after Labor Day, which seemed to make summer last a very long time. What I associate most with my childhood summers are the sounds:

- untold numbers of crickets and other insects making their lovely cacophony of chirping and other noises, especially if you were fortunate to be out at night away from the city

- a baseball bat being dragged across concrete, barrel side down, as I walked to another game of pickup baseball

- tennis shoes (pronounced "tenna shoes") being scuffed across walkways of large gravel, making it sound somewhat like metal baseball cleats crunching on that gravel

- the wind in my ears as I rode my bike everywhere at a fast pace

- a warm, soft rain, gentle and peaceful, with a calming effect best noticed if you were in a glider on the front porch

- a loud thunderstorm that shook the house

- the "thwack" of a wiffle ball against a wiffle bat

- the "thonk" of a rubber ball slamming off the front steps, the steps of the church next door, or the side wall of the apartment building behind us as I played countless games of baseball in my head

- the solid crack of a bat smashing into a hard-thrown baseball

- the trumpet sounding "Charge!" to spur on the Columbus Jets against their foes. I recall Richmond, Rochester (thought it was "ROD-chester"), Syracuse, Buffalo the most

- kids "popping" an empty, upside down plastic-coated paper Coke cup on concrete at the ballpark

- fireworks on Independence Day

- Sainted Mother ringing the dinner bell to call us home

These are the sounds that first spring to mind when I recall my childhood summers. I know there are hundreds more "sound memories" just waiting to bubble up to my conscious thoughts. I wish I could recapture them all.