52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Sounds

Week 9: Sounds. Describe any sounds that take you back to your childhood. These could be familiar songs, jingles, children playing, or something entirely different.

- The first sound that comes to my mind when I think back to my childhood is the ticking clock in the dining room.  You could hear the ticking and the chiming on the hour and 1/2 hour across several rooms.  I can remember lying in bed and counting the chimes so I would know what time it was.  It was a ritual to wind it up with the key... I was way up in years before I was allowed to do that.  If I remember correctly, the clock was given to my father by my Uncle Bart Weaver (who was married to Daddy's sister, Irene Tapley).  I just always remember it being there, ticking away. 

Other sound memories:

- McDonald's Big Mac jingle... "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame bun".  The faster you could sing it, the better!

- The slap of our screen door as it closed.

- Brenda Lee music... especially when I sang out loud to "Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home"! 

- Also, the soundtrack of "My Fair Lady" - "Just you wait 'enry 'iggins, just you wait!"









But, unfortunately, not all sounds are happy sounds.  I also remember yelling... and the silence.  Yes, silence has a sound... especially when it's a tense, expectant silence, waiting in fearful anticipation of the next outburst.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your memories on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

**Album images courtesy of Google Images.