Summer’s just around the corner, and the season sounds different to all of us. We wanted to know if there’s a quintessential sound that signals to you that summer has arrived. Maybe it's a favorite album, a birdsong or the thud of footsteps on a trail.
For May’s Big Question, we asked: What is your sound of summer?
Below are some of the responses we heard from you. Submissions for May are now closed. You can find June’s Big Question here.
Tamara from Amherst:
“I grew up on Baboosic Lake. So, it was always speedboats. As soon as the temperature was tolerable, they were out there on their water skis. The boats would speed up on their way towards our part of the lake and coast through the curve. Anytime they had water skiers in tow, anybody on two skis or someone who wasn't as accomplished often would fall and splash and swear. That’s the stuff we’d hear coming in through the window.”
Mark from Concord:
“My favorite sound of summer is the song of the northern oriole. He comes every May or June and hangs out in the tall trees on the northeast side of my house. He sings his song as he jumps around. I can just imagine him feasting on fat caterpillars and basking in the warmth of the sunshine.”
Richard McFarland from Manchester:
“My song of summer [is from] glasspack mufflers — those rumbling sounds that come out of muscle cars and motorcycles as they accelerate. You might not think it’s the wonderful sound of summer, but when you have that rumble through your window, you know summer is not far off, and when it ends, you know winter is going to be upon you very soon.”
John from West Chesterfield:
“My favorite sound of summer is the snap, crackle and pop of black flies and mosquitoes as they hit my electric badminton racket.”
Michelle from Keene:
“My sound of summer is the sound of my neighborhood and my neighbors — the kids riding bikes in the street and hollering to each other [and] the people talking to each other on the way home from the bars. And my neighbor upstairs has the best laugh in the world, and they sit on the porch and they laugh and it just means summer is here.”
This audio features the call of a wood thrush by Paul Driver and the bird song of a Baltimore oriole recorded by Christopher McPherson, both available under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. It also features the sound of an old Dodge truck recorded by roscoetoon available under a CC BY 3.0 license.
