[merrylander]

Where I grew up there were four villages divided by the Richelieu River and the CN rail tracks. There was a level crossing in the village next to ours so the engines (steam) would give the four note crossing warning. There was a freight that would go through about 5:00 AM, they said it was responsible for more babies than any natural cause - too early to get up, too late to go back to sleep.

Across the river was a lumber yard, the old fashioned kind where a single donkey engine drove everything with overhead belts - OSHA would have had a fit. But most days you could hear that old donkey engine and how its single cylinder would misfire every twenty seconds or so.

Then there was the old Scot who loved to practice his pipes of an evening, they wafted over the fields. In the late evening as it was time to get home my Mother would call - cell phones? we did not need any stinkin cell phones - ah the sounds of my youth.