Summer’s Soundtrack

How the Sounds of the Season Endure

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As I sat reading in the late afternoon, the sounds of summer drifted through the neighborhood and into the open window nearby.

The book soon rested closed in my lap.

The first notes of the afternoon arrived one by one. Somewhere down the block, a lawn mower hums, the warm air carrying the scent of freshly cut grass. Closer by, a basketball thumps steadily on the pavement.

Sitting there, it becomes hard not to notice how the sounds of summer endure, even as the years find new ways to play them.

The baseball game plays softly on the television in the next room. Years ago, the voice of an announcer might have spilled from a transistor radio resting on a porch railing or windowsill, fading in and out with the reception.

Before long, another familiar sound finds its way through the window. The melody of an ice cream truck repeats as it makes its way from one block to the next. I remember the Good Humor man announcing his arrival with a set of bells he rang by pulling a cord beside the rearview mirror.

The whir of an e-bike passes by, its electric hum dissolving, if only for an instant, into the old buzz of a baseball card fastened to a bicycle fork with a clothespin. Nearby, a set of wind chimes answers a passing breeze.

The afternoon continues its slow progression. The basketball bounces a few more times before going quiet. Down the block, a screen door slams, followed by a voice calling a child inside.

···

Growing up, that call usually meant dinner was ready. On summer nights, it was often only an intermission before we headed back outside, staying out until the streetlights came on.

One by one, the sounds of the late afternoon fade.

With the book back on the table and the game in its final moments, only the cicadas remain, their steady chorus carrying the final notes of the day.

Photographed with a Nikon Z8 and a Lensbaby Velvet 56 lens.

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