Reply
Sun 2 Jan, 2005 07:22 am
Quote:Back in the prehistoric 1970s, one of life's little pleasures was the ability to slam down a telephone on annoying callers. Now, thanks to the rise of cordless phones, the best you can do is fiercely poke the off button - or, if money is no object, throw the receiver into a wall.
The slamming phone, like dozens of once-familiar sounds, is headed for extinction. As technology advances, more and more noises - the pop of flashbulbs, the gurgle of coffee percolators, the clatter of home-movie projectors - are fading into oblivion.
While audio junkies scramble to preserve samples for future generations, psychologists debate the consequences of this noise exodus. Some foresee a sonic revolution - one that could launch a wave of silence and perhaps force Hollywood studios to rethink the way they tell stories.
http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGB7URHRG3E.html
I can remember the "ka-CHING" of mechanical cash registers, and the sound of coins dropping into coin telephone slots. In the back of my mind I can recall the sound of kids' steel wheeled roller skates scraping along the pavement. And I can hear, in the back of my mind, the sound of a seltzer bottle expelling its bubbly contents into a glass.
What sounds do YOU remember that no longer exist?
The bell for the school breaks (chimed by myself).
Sirens, announcing the lunch break in factories.
Bells again, from the milkman, and the piping tunes from the rag-and-bone men.
The different sound of car engines, which made them distinguishable from each other just by this sound.
And ....
(Coin telephone are re-introduced, btw, here again: for the tourists.
And steel-wheel rollerskates were "in" last year with yuppies.)
Never mind the ka-ching of slamming down the phone. How about the sound of a phone being dialed? Do rotary phones still exist?
Changed the ones at mother's last year - and it took some time, until she got used to pressing buttons.
The clippity clop of the hooves of the horses as they pulled the milk delivery wagon down tjhe street.
Phoenix, I have a rotary phone in my garage, that looks exactly like this:
http://www.phonemerchants.com/earamdecphon.html
How about the sound of a live voice saying, "Number, please"
The clack-clack-clack of typewriters. Even the chunk-chunk-chunk of the IBM Selectric.
Followed by the zipppp! as you yank the paper out from the platen.
flyboy -- yeah, I miss the clippety-clop of horses' hoofs on pavement. We had a horse-drawn ice wagon come down our street most mornings. The wagon had rubber tires, so there was no rattling sound there. But those hoofbeats were a joy.
The big clock that ticked once every 60 seconds over the classroom door.
Twice per day (at least) I could hear hooves clacking on the street:
very slowly and heavy from the Begian horse, which towed the waggon for the local "railway forwarding agent" ('bahnamtliche Spedition' that's in German),
- and the donkey drawn cart from the Psychiatric Hospital, on his way to and back from the dairy
I can even remember the clang-clang-clang of the trolley car in Brooklyn.
That's another thing, Phoenix. We still have trolleys in Boston. But they no longer clang the bells like they used to. The new ones are all equipped with horrible-sounding, blahhring horns.
The sound of steam being released by a train engine.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace