Last week was summer. Today is fall but it is a beautiful fall day with lots of sun, a deep blue sky and a breeze which is strong enough to bend limbs and blow leaves. I can hear the mower in my front yard. The grass was high and several pine needles had already fallen. Before long they will cover the lawn, and I’ll hear the blower making piles. I miss the sounds of rakes. Every Saturday this time of year I could hear rakes from just about every house on the block. That scratching sound is one of my strongest memories from this time of year.

Remembering the rakes got me thinking about sounds which have disappeared. I remember the rotary phone and how it clicked before the dial circled back around so you could finger in another number. My father would always tell us we’d break the TV dial if we moved the channel selector really fast. It clunked as it moved from station to station. Snow was often the annoying background sound on our TV. It was like a hissing, and it did kind of look like snow when the picture disappeared and those black and white dots replaced it. When TV programming when off the air for the night, snow or the test pattern was what you’d find.

My mother had a hifi. I used it to listen to my 45’s. I’d load the records on the top over the chunky middle piece you had to use for 45’s then I’d turn the button. First I’d hear the record falling then the clicking sound of the other records as they moved down to fill the now empty space. The arm moved onto the first grooves of the record which made a sound almost like a click then the music would begin.

I know some old houses probably still have radiators, but mine doesn’t. When I was a kid, there was one on the wall opposite the bottom of my bed. I could hear the water run through it then the hissing of the steam as it was released. Woolworth’s used to have a cash register with clunky keys and bells. Typewriters had great sounds from the clicking of the keys to the sound of the bell when the carriage was moved. I still have my typewriter. It was my high school graduation gift.

Of all these sounds, I miss the raking the most and my Dad the raker.