Every night, a landline phone rings twice approximately every 5 minutes in the apartment above ours. We've become deaf to it, but guests always notice it and once you hear it, you can't unhear it. Our building turned on the heat this past week which means we now fall asleep to the sounds of our clanging radiator. It, too, becomes white noise, until it wakes you up at 3 in the morning and it won't. stop. whistling. At least you think it was the radiator that woke you up, until you realize it was actually the sound of a mouse (rat?) skittering around the ceiling above you. But it's all a blurry memory by the morning. Our apartment faces an alleyway of sorts, which is home to a couple of dogs and one very ornery cat. I think one of my least favorite sounds is that of a cat in heat, something I had never heard before living in Harlem. A saxophone-playing neighbor can often be heard serenading the alleyway through his open window. He practices mainly at night, but I don't mind. You can hear dance parties on the weekends, gospel music on the weeknights. The ever present noise of neighbors climbing the stairs outside our door. When you stop and listen, you can almost always hear a honking horn or a siren, but it's easy to tune out. These sounds have become the soundtrack of my home, quietly playing in the background of my life. This is New York as I hear it.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
as i hear it.
Every night, a landline phone rings twice approximately every 5 minutes in the apartment above ours. We've become deaf to it, but guests always notice it and once you hear it, you can't unhear it. Our building turned on the heat this past week which means we now fall asleep to the sounds of our clanging radiator. It, too, becomes white noise, until it wakes you up at 3 in the morning and it won't. stop. whistling. At least you think it was the radiator that woke you up, until you realize it was actually the sound of a mouse (rat?) skittering around the ceiling above you. But it's all a blurry memory by the morning. Our apartment faces an alleyway of sorts, which is home to a couple of dogs and one very ornery cat. I think one of my least favorite sounds is that of a cat in heat, something I had never heard before living in Harlem. A saxophone-playing neighbor can often be heard serenading the alleyway through his open window. He practices mainly at night, but I don't mind. You can hear dance parties on the weekends, gospel music on the weeknights. The ever present noise of neighbors climbing the stairs outside our door. When you stop and listen, you can almost always hear a honking horn or a siren, but it's easy to tune out. These sounds have become the soundtrack of my home, quietly playing in the background of my life. This is New York as I hear it.
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You are such a great writer, Allison! Loved this. Although I feel bad you live in such a noisy place ha. So different from my apartment. Occasionally we hear the train in the distance and a few times we've heard our neighbor yelling at his poor wife. That's it though.
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