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Archiver > MEMORY-LANE > 2006-09 > 1157129201


From: "ROBERT E PATY" <>
Subject: Re: [ML] On Bells
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 09:46:41 -0700
References: <20060901104024.20033.qmail@web35402.mail.mud.yahoo.com><44F85063.5040200@gmail.com>


----- Original Message -----
From: "WJFreeman" <>
To: "Walter S. Barge" <>
Cc: "MemoryLane" <>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 8:23 AM
Subject: [ML] On Bells


Walter, as always, I enjoyed your words on bells, below. And this got
me to thinking about the subject, as well.


What was once a means of communication has become a custom increasingly
associated with extraordinary occasions -- the ringing of bells in a
community, or a whistle, or a siren.

As the population has spread in suburban sprawl, the use of audible
signal devices has waned. I can remember in old Norcross, the sound of
church bells on Sunday morning. I can remember for a time, a noon
whistle, a later a short burst of the fire siren also at noon.

I remember the bells which rang in the schools signaling the changing of
classes or the beginning or end of recess or the lunch periods.

I remember the clanging of the bells as the locomotive steamed into the
station in Norcross, both arriving and departing, along with great
chuffing and puffing and billowing clouds of steam. Though the steam
locomotives are long gone, the trains still run, but no longer stop in
old Norcross.

Is it two longs (dashes), a short (dot), and a final long (dash)?

The Morse letter Q, though I have no idea why. Though I have seen the
signal signs alongside the tracks before a grade crossing -- back in the
days when I would walk along RR tracks.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Walt,
You were a "track walker" too! When I was a young boy living in Little Rock,
AR, a friend and I would walk the RR tracks for miles just to see where they
went. We went down and investigated every "crick" that the railroad crossed.
I have always liked to wade in shallow streams, wish I had some close enough
to me to wade in.

Bells & whistles: There is a catholic church about 1/2 mile from my house
here in Scottsdale.
Their bell tower is programmed to ring the angelus every hour from 7:00 a.m.
until 10:00 p.m.
It is not loud enough to annoy their neighbors and I cannot hear it if the
wind is from the West.
It is a beautiful sound and I count myself lucky if I am outside when it
rings.

I grew up with school bells all the way through high school. At the grammar
school I attended in Little Rock, we were not allowed inside the building
until five minutes before first class. The school principal had a big brass
bell with a wooden handle. She would come out the door at about seven
minutes before first class and stand at the top of the steps that led up to
the door and start ringing her bell. We all had to line up at the bottom of
the steps. When she was satisfied that we were in proper order she would
make any important announcements then blow her thunder whistle which was on
a black cord around her neck and we could then go inside the building. I
don't know if they still use bell sounds in school any more. It has been
more than 50 years since I was last in one.

We don't have any passenger train service coming through the valley any
longer. There are several freight trains that pass through. The ones that
come East from Phoenix go through Tempe. The tracks are about two or three
miles from my house and I can hear the whistle when they blow it.
That is another sound that I love but don't hear much any more.

Mad Hatter


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