Downtown Sound!

   I usually have a set of headphones on during
my morning walk. I listen to "Talk Radio" for
as long as I can take it. Lately that's been about
ten minutes. The I start looking for entertainment.
   Yesterday I took the headphones off when
someone asked me a question.
    That's when I started listening to see if the
downtown offered any sounds of its own. It did!
     The first, and most obvious, thing you hear
is the traffic. It comes in loud, but short bursts,
that rise and fall in tune, or time, with the traffic
signal lights.
      There's the occasional sound of a bird or
birds. You can only catch them in between
the cars and trucks.
      But the sound that dominated my walk was
the sound of a very loud drill!  It was wielded
by a worker in a truck lift who was renovating
the facade of an office building. Patrons were
asked to use the side door while the work was in
progress.
     I couldn't help but wonder what those
patrons were thinking as they waited inside.
     It was a Dentist's Office!
    Imagine sitting inside waiting for your turn
in the chair and hearing the repetitive sounds
of a drill bit chiseling its way into concrete!
     Then there was the "Mystery music!"
     Even with my headphone on I've heard it
from time to time as I walk near an Italian
Grocery Market.
     It's usually the unmistakable voice of the
late Dean Martin crooning one of his many
tunes.......many Italian.
     But while I've heard the music...I've never
spotted the speaker! I thought, perhaps, it was
being played, at full volume, inside the store.
     Not so. I stopped to listen and the music
definitely originated somewhere on the
exterior of the building.
     Since I had devoted this walk to the "sounds
of the city" I was determined to find the source.
     And though it took awhile......I found it!
     I don't know who hid the small speaker
behind the ice machine. Or why! Maybe it's the
only place it fit. More likely the owners
realized a crook would have to risk breaking his
back to get at an old speaker bolted to a brick
wall! 
     But I'm glad it fit somewhere. It's among the
"downtown sounds" that really made my day!
     Hope you stop, look, and LISTEN now and
then and that all your NEWS is good!