Town Sounds

Cody, WY 9/5/2011

I grew up in a small town, one block from a textile mill where many of our neighbors worked. Some of  my earliest memories are the sounds of the neighborhood; the light early morning traffic,(especially the swish swish sound of tires on wet pavement), the opening, lunch and closing whistles at the mill. Later on I became aware of the sounds of a wider world; the cheers from the high school football games on fall Friday nights and the constant train whistles, the tracks a block away.
We are visiting a western town, population 8000+, where the sounds have become an important part of our visit. The courthouse clock strikes the hours and half hours, concerts in the park can be heard, and Friday nights, we hear the cheers from the high school. Some mornings I hear the hooves of mule deer as they move through the lawns of this town.
The distinctive sound of Cody occurs late in the evening as some of the locals reenact a gunfight on a blocked off street at the Irma Hotel. We look forward to it every day.