16 May 2021

My dog has a peculiar quirk.

Ok – she has a few quirks. But let’s ignore the tree climbing and the sock thievery, and go straight to her reactions when someone in the house makes a cup of tea.

The container I keep tea bags in has a screw top lid, and the sound of this lid being opened will bring her running from anywhere in the house.

Sound asleep when the tea bag jar is opened? Wide awake and standing at your feet within seconds.

Sitting upstairs staring out the window when the tea bag jar is opened? You’ll hear the tiny feet hurtling down the stairs at speed.

I have no idea why she has this reaction to that noise. I’ve never kept anything in that container other than tea bags. She doesn’t like drinking tea. There’s nothing in it for her, when someone in the house is drinking a cup of tea. But the sound is a signal for her to rush towards the kitchen.

She’s been with us since she was 8 weeks old, but maybe as a very young puppy she associated that noise with something good.

Who knows? Nowadays she gets a quizzical smile and a pat, when she arrives in the kitchen.

Do you have a sound that brings you instant memories or feelings?

I’ve got a few 🙂

The sound of a crow calling always takes me back to my childhood when we lived in a small country town in the south of our state. The distinctive crow call takes me back to days I stayed on a friends farm. Instantly. I can almost hear sheep and tractors 🙂

Waves crashing on the beach bring back multiple memories of childhood. We had many holidays spent at the beach, building sandcastles and installing drainage systems for these sandcastles for when the waves came close. Inner tubes blown up for swimming, and chasing beach umbrellas down the beach.

Thunder booming brings memories of sitting around as a child with my family, counting how many seconds elapse between the lightning and the thunder, to work out how far away the lightning strike was.

Frog noises take me back to holidays in Busselton as a child. We would lie in the front room listening to the frogs all making music in the ditch out the front. Loudly. Strangely, the loud noise helped me to go to sleep, rather than keeping me awake.

I heard a record being played yesterday, and that crackling noise before the music began took me waaaaay back to my childhood. I remembered sitting near the old record player/phonograph thingy we had that even played 78 records. From memory one of the 78 records that Dad had was Jerry Lewis’ “The Nagger”. There was another record from Flanders and Swan, and my oldest brother remembers a ‘ducky’ record, which is likely to be “Swan Lake”.

I don’t hear it any more, of course, but the internet dial up noise is something that brings back many memories. And I have a lot of gratitude that we don’t have to listen to it anymore!

Have you got any sound memories to add to my little collection?

Do you run to the kitchen at the sound of a cup of tea being made, for instance?