Dear Reader Column 10-18-05

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Dear Reader,

I'd forgotten all about it, that high pitched, shrill sound. But I knew right away what it was. I looked down at my watch and smiled. Sure enough, the noon whistle was blowing right on time, just like it did when I was a kid.

"You don't need a watch," my mother used to tell me when I'd go out to play, "just come home when the noon whistle blows."

I was back home for a visit in the small town of 2,000 where I grew up. It's still the kind of place where most people don't lock their doors, and it's no big deal if you leave your keys in your car. People look out for each other. In fact, when I was visiting, a neighbor called and reminded me not to forget to put the top up on the convertible I'd rented, because it was supposed to rain.

The noon whistle doesn't blow in the city that I live in now, and when I started thinking about it, I wondered why, and how did this blowing-the-noon-whistle thing get started anyway?

So I did a little research.

Bells used to ring in small town city halls every day at noon. People didn't have electric clocks, so when they heard the bells ringing, they'd pull out their pocket watches to wind them, and all of the housewives would get out their keys so they could wind their mantel clocks. It was the only way to keep everyone on the same time.

Noon whistles today sound more like sirens, because usually they are the same siren that blows when there's a fire in town. And sometimes that can cause a problem. Gary McCrea, Village President of Benton, Wisconsin--who's lived there for 67 years--told me that a couple of times the fire siren has blown one minute before the noon whistle was supposed to blow, and volunteer firefighters were confused.

Most people in small towns today just sit back and enjoy the friendly reminder that it's time to have lunch. But not everyone appreciates the daily noon whistle. In another small town in Wisconsin, a man whose home was next to the pole that housed the "noon whistle siren" was tired of hearing the blast every day. He complained, the whistle was silenced for awhile, and then the townspeople petitioned to get it back. The noon whistle is blowing again, but the upset whistle blower moved out of town.

And then there's Soldotna, Alaska. The Chamber of Commerce lists 49 things you can do for free when you visit their fine city. "Listen to the dogs howl when the traditional noon whistle goes off," is number 44 on their list!

It sounds like home to me.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
www.DearReader.com

Comments

[Pat Heldman]

Ah, yes. I found this site by putting "noon whistle" in Google. My sis and I were talking about "home" the other day and wondered how the noon whistle in Willits, CA where we grew up got started and why. She is a folklorist and is doing some research but it seems to harken back to the old "company towns". And, it was also used to call the volunteer fire department. One whistle wasn't bad, but a 4-whistle fire could burn the town down. Thanks for your article.

[Daniel De Rosso]

I was obsessed with the noon whistle as a kid. I would sit in 6th grade class and listen to it everyday. I think part of the history involves factories where the whistle would blow and let all the workers know it was time for lunch. It is definitely more common with firehouses these days.

I even went so far when I was a kid to take pictures of noon whistles and I even recorded a few of them. I thought at one point of putting it together as a book but it's such a strange and arcane topic I couldn't imagine what the market for it would be!

[Anne]

The story of your allnighter was hilarious. Our television sputtered out over 2 years ago so I cant go that route. It is a very large and heavy black SONY unit which is always ominously and silently present and is taking up an enormous amount of space in my family room. Even my two men cant lift it easily. I am not sure it can go on a dolly (? spelling) and out down the steps but since it did get into the house there must be a way to get rid of it. The same two men brought it in about 6 years ago. BTW my all nighters come quite often. That's when my brain keeps running videos of my existence in rewind mode, fast loop.