Sounds Pretty Much Every Yakima Valley Kid Remembers from Summer

Pausing in the stillness of the night at 2 in the morning yesterday made me reminisce about the sounds I heard growing up as a kid, before the time of cell phones, loud hybrid cars, noisy data centers, and the internet. On a quiet night, if you stand still long enough to listen, you can still hear the Yakima Valley earth coming to life with its own brand of recognizable nighttime noise.

Musings and Memories Come to Me After Midnight

Don't tell the neighbors, but sometimes I like to take a short walk around my apartment building at 2 in the morning just to listen to the sounds of things happening in the distance. It's my weird way of daydreaming, don't mind me.

When I did this last night, I heard two very loud police sirens as they were chasing yet another dumb criminal and the muffled sound of train horns far in the distance as they zipped along the tracks across North Front Street by Yakima Ave.

7 Nostalgic Nighttime Noises of the Valley

What nighttime sounds do you remember as a kid? Most of these we can still hear now, if only we take the time to listen...

#1: Pay Phones: The sounds of a passing by a pay phone and it randomly rings. (Did you ever pick up the phone when it did that? How about checking it for quarters that might have fallen out? Was that just me, haha!)

#2: Cruising the Ave: The sounds of car horns beeping and people yelling (and flirting) back and forth on the strip as people cruised up and down the Ave

#3: The Sunnyside Lighted Parade: The delighted squeals of kids and adults "oohing" and "ahhing" at the Lighted Parade in Sunnyside

#4: Late-Night Trains: The muffled sounds of train horns as they went up and down the train tracks at night

#5: The Ice Cream Truck: Those loud bells from the ice cream truck that sent all the kids running up the street

#6: Orchard Wind Machines: Those low-pitched hums from all the ag wind machines in the orchards and fields

#7: Raceway Racket: The sounds of hot rods, stock cars, or motocross engines roaring around Renegade Raceway as they raced around the track in Wapato and the old Yakima Speedway.

Which one of those sounds do you miss hearing the most? Let me know in the comments.