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Sounds of the Past

M

Moonlite37

Well-known Member
The post about sounds of cows made me remember some sounds I may never hear again. Push type reel lawnmower, Horse drawn mower wheel dogs clicking, young rooster learning to crow, Magneto impulse clicking. Harness squeaking as it stretches under load. steam train whistle.
 
Come to Owosso Mi on weekends from Thanksgiving to Christmas and you can hear the steam whistle on the old 1225 steamer when they leave town for the big trip to Ashley and back.
 
Some people shall never hear only one sound. Sound is more meaningful if no other sounds are heard. Some people except the deaf shall never experience quietness.
 
I remember my dad and older brothers milking by hand, and the most unique sound I recall from hand milking, was the sound of milk hitting foam when the cow was near milked out, and the bucket full. I have hand milked cows many times, but my two oldest brothers could milk so fast, the milk pail always had foam on top of the milk. And I remember as a little guy watching as they milked the old cows would get into the rhythm and sway back and forth gently in time with the milkers squeeze. Well over 50 years ago now. Each of my three brothers had 5 cows to milk morning and night, the two oldest would often milk 6 each cause the youngest of the three didn?t like milking and dragged it out, much to the discuss of the older two.
 
Dad baling hay with the NH 66 baler with Wisconsin engine groaning with each stroke of the plunger. Grandpa opening the wagon shed door with the one bent roller that had its unique clicking sound. The belt driven Case hammer mill powered by a Farmall Super C. The clickity-clack of the fanning mill cleaning oats. The farmhouse steps creaking as Grandma went to bed. Every doorknob and lightswitch in the farmhouse had its own unique sound, I would know what room you were in by listening. I could list many many more...
 
A friend of mine was mostly deaf since birth. Later in life he got an implant, and when it turned on, he told me he heard birds chirping and singing for the first time.
 
I'll always remember the Wisconsin engine groaning on every stroke of the baler. Nice sounding engine. All it needed was a pair of glass pack mufflers!
 
One of my favorite sounds still today is walking across the yard after the snow has been plowed on a real cold day and the crunch and squeek the snow makes.
 
The lake valley we grew up in resonated sounds well. Especially in heavy air. We could hear sounds better than a mile out depending on wind. The clang of hog feeders, the hum of neighboring milker pumps, the growl of the engines on different make tractors. The neighborhood had 4 Cockshutt 560/ 570?s that either pulled the chopper or ran the blower. They have their sound. In the farm yard the sound of KASM drizzling out of every barn. None of our neighbors learned to turn their barn radio off. That KASM polka trying to keep rhythm with the set of Surge impulse milkers. The click of the electric fencer, the nervous cackle of chickens and grunting of pigs, the click of drinking cups operating....
 
I remember lying in bed at night and hearing the passenger train's whistle as it went through the little town five miles from home. And I remember lying there at dawn and hearing the sound of red-headed woodpeckers drumming on the metal ridge cap to declare their territory.
 
The neighbors to the south of us and their 2 cylinder JDs working their ground. We didn't have any green tractors other than a little 550 Oliver.
 
You can also go East of you twenty miles and hear the one at the Huck a Berry railroad 7 days a week at the Genesee county park.
 
One unique sound I remember well was the hay rope going through the pulleys under the strain of a full fork load of hay. It made a rhythmic "gick" , "gick" , "gick" noise which I have never heard anytime else. Thinking of it brings me back to hot summers and the smell of fresh baled alfalfa.
 
(quoted from post at 15:39:07 12/12/19) You can also go East of you twenty miles and hear the one at the Huckleberry railroad 7 days a week at the Genesee county park.
Click to expand...
am surprised! I have just casually read 14 posts to this topic, and the Huckleberry Railroad is mentioned. WOW! I am in Tennessee, but I have visited my aunt and uncle near Lapeer, MI and have been to the Huckleberry railroad. My aunt was from Genesee county.

Dennis M. in W. Tenn.
 
I remember walking to the milk barn where my grandpa and step grandmother were milking by hand. I could stand outside the barn and tell which one was milking as they both had there own rhythm. He left this world Dec 1969.I sure do wish I could set in his lap one more time.
 
Read the replies and didn't see anybody mention a barn full of sows nursing the baby pigs. Dad farrowed 14 sows at a time and once you ran the sows in from feeding, it was a squealing nightmare until they laid down to feed.
 
That's also a sound I would like to hear again. Dad used the IH bailer as a stationary machine. He would bring shocks of hay to it with his buck rake attached to the F12. The hay was pitched into the feed by hand. Some times I would try to see how much oat hay I could pitch in at a time. It would make the Wisconsin perk right up, and keep going. Miss those days, and that sound. Stan
 

That sound, and the mewing of cats, that dad would aim a stream of milk across the aisle to hit them in the mouth with a stream of milk. Or in mine of my sisters ear, to get our attention.
 
Years ago I did a lot of coon hunting. You hear a lot different sounds on a cold still night, some of them make the hair on the back of your neck stick out but the ones I kind of miss are a squeaking windmill or hog feeder lids banging or a train miles away or water running over some riffles or a beaver dam. And of course the sound of the old hound hitting a trail and getting all excited.
 
A sound I don't hear anymore is the distant (almost 3 miles) "pop pop" sound of my uncle's AR John Deere. On a clear and quiet winter day we could sometimes hear that old JD almost 3 miles away as they went about their chores of hauling water, wood, manure, pushing snow with the blade. Another sound we don't hear is the whine and scream of the circular saw cutting through poplar logs as the neighbours cut their firewood. It has been replaced by the incredibly annoying angry snarl of snowmobiles that seem to run at higher rpm than the average chain saw.
 
I "reheard" a whole lot of sounds reading this, about everything except one of my favorites. Carlile Brothers, Virgil, Don, and Shorty, had a 1950 Oliver with the Detroit 2 cycle in it. Laying in bed at night at the right time of year I could hear that old girl screaming into the night, across the bottoms, as they worked dirt. gm
 

My grandpa's voice, my grandma's laugh and my father-in-law's knock on the kitchen window, when he'd stop by for coffee & a cookie, after checkin' the cows.
 
A very neat sound is a mother cow murmuring to her new born calf.

A different sound: They were drilling an oil well about 10 miles from parents house
in the early 70's. It was -20 deg. and they were pulling 20,000+ feet (Not a mis-print) of drill stem.
They had 3 big GM 2-cycle engines running the draw works. They would wind up those Jimmy's
and drop the clutch and they would almost kill them, but they'd recover and bring the drill stem
up, them do it all over again. It was so cold and clear, we thought the were next door!!!
 
Well, here are at least 2 of the things you remembered. The sewing machine action of the horse drawn cycle bar mower, and the strain of the leather tugs...lol. Bob
cvphoto44446.jpg
 
KASM Albany, we called it music to time your tractor by. Sunday nights at the Golden Spike Speedway, a couple of fellows from Albany came to race but said they had to hurry up the milking so they got there on time.
 
The calls of bob-white quail (different sound for male and female) out in the field. Haven't seen or heard a quail in 40 years. My dad was an avid quail hunter, and I enjoyed it too. He liked to mess with the male birds, whistling like a female and calling them up. He could bring them up on the porch where he was sitting; on one occasion the bird flew between the chains of the swing. Another time he was sitting in the house, whistling through the window. A love-struck male actually flew into the window screen.
 
(quoted from post at 10:50:08 12/12/19) Years ago I did a lot of coon hunting. You hear a lot different sounds on a cold still night, some of them make the hair on the back of your neck stick out but the ones I kind of miss are a squeaking windmill or hog feeder lids banging or a train miles away or water running over some riffles or a beaver dam. And of course the sound of the old hound hitting a trail and getting all excited.
Click to expand...
When I was teenager, my brother and I went coon hunting with a neighbor. It was like you said, very still in the timber, and it was our first time. All at once a great horned owl let out one of those shrieks like only they can do in a tree right above us, and it scared the bejeebers out of both of us. My brother said breathlessly, "What was THAT?" We'd never heard one before.
 
Ahhhh...to hear a Whip-poor-will again! I suppose I never will. Last time must've been 20 tears ago & they were rare then. In the 1940's & '50's we hear them all the time. Don't know what happened to'em.
 
Neighbor half mile away sawing wood with a hit n miss engine. New neighbor moved in between us couldnt understand why they didnt fix that engine that skipped so bad! Oil can on kitchen stove going glug glug glug.
 
The crack of the exhaust from the old John Deere A echoing off the hills, flames shooting from a glowing red muffler, while working ground at dusk.
Lying in bed as a little kid listening to the coon hounds baying on the scent late at night somewhere back in the hills.
The steady sound of the pulsators on the DeLaval pails.
And many, many of those sounds already mentioned above.......
 
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