Noise can be distracting

Most mornings I fix a couple cups of coffee, one small cup in a heavy old cafe type cup and the other twice that size. I take my meds with the small cup, which cools fast and works for swallowing pills. The other cup I take outside to the picnic table. One morning last week, I called my brother in Nebraska, and he mentioned he heard our train on the phone, and I heard his rooster crowing. He's about 50 miles from a railroad. We live about a quarter mile from the tracks. He has chickens!

Just that same morning, I'd sat there and listened to the sounds around our place which is close to Lightner Cemetery. As I listened I heard the train, some trucks, some cars and pickups, some side-by-sides and even a plane or two. Kind of noisy.

Growing up, there were virtually no sounds except for normal natural noises. You might hear a coyote howl. Might hear a cow bawl or a calf. Might hear a horse neigh. Dog might bark. On a real clear night, we could hear Darwin's and Shirley's dog bark. This was about two and a half miles from us.

In the daytime, one might hear a meadowlark sing or a curlew chime in. Curlew. An interesting bird. One might hear a tractor during haying season. There were blackbirds and sparrows. At times in the evening, one might hear the whoop of a night hawk as it flew or the sounds of a killdeer as it tended its young. During the spring and fall geese would fly over. Now and then a plane would fly over. All in all, it was quiet.

At times one would work in the shop, and some ran the radio just to give the shop some noise. I prefer the quiet, but some like the sound of music or talk. Some have a TV in their shop so they may listen to movies or talk shows and the like. Most summers growing up, we spent a good amount of time running a tractor. We ran sickle mowers 10 to 12 hours a day six days a week from July 5 until school started in September. We didn't have a radio on the tractor so you listened to the tractor run and the mower cut. There were times I hated it, but looking back it was some of my best years.

When there was horses to be ridden, about all you heard was the squeak of the saddle and the movements of the horse. The horse was pretty quiet and hardly ever made a sound. He was quiet enough so you could hear the birds or the cows or someone else yelling or just talking to their horse or the cows. Hardly ever heard a pickup and never heard a train. Pretty quiet.

Might even be too quiet for some. Some probably wouldn't like the quiet that was so quiet it was deafening in a way. Some today would wear a player of some kind with music. They might enjoy it. I prefer the quiet. One memory I will never forget is staying up at my Uncle Mick's, Dad's brother, and lying in bed at night and listening to the wind blow through the pine trees planted around their house. I like to listen to the rain on a tin roof but I sure like to listen to the wind rustling in the pines.

As I remember the sounds one I'll never forget is saying our prayers and goodnights at bedtime. Mom and Dad and Mick and I would all go to bed after the weather then Mick and I and Mom and Dad would say goodnight to everyone. Goodnight Mick. Goodnight Mom and Dad. And then we'd pray. "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord, my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord, my soul to take." Said this prayer pretty much every night.

Say your prayers, but don't forget that most noise makers have an off button.