Earl Duward Rodgers on sounds you no longer hear

Climate Land Leader Sylvia Spalding is helping her father write his memoirs. In response to a prompt we issued earlier this year, Sylvia asked her father: “What are sounds that you no longer hear?” We are delighted to post responses from this man in his 90s who grew up in Iowa and has long lived in Hawaii.

Sounds: Spring Creek Township, Mahaska County, Iowa 1930s–1940s

By Earl Duward Rodgers (2023)

The crowing of the rooster early morning
The windmill pumping up well water
The roaring sound of the overhead barn hay rail track
The “Get ye up” call to horse in use
The squirt sound of milk aimed toward the cats waiting behind the milk cow in station
Baby birds asking for feed from parents
The chirping of Pedro, my grandmother Henness’s yellow canary bird, in its cage
Thunder sound in stormy rain
The call from the woodland of bobtail wild cats
The chirp-chirp of newly hatched chickens
Our domesticated ducks happily quacking on our constructed water pond
The grunt sound of hog sows when you enter their hog house to feed them or to clean up their pig litter
Sow snorting as you enter her feed lot
The contented groaning sounds of a sow lying on her side as her litter of piglets crawl over her for milk nursing
The cluck-cluck sound of the hen chickens when you enter their hen house to feed them or to get their eggs
The whiny call of a horse greeting another horse in the distance
The sound of the power takeoff from the stationary tractor when powering a grain-mashing machine
Sound of the single-engine aircraft on monthly low altitude following underground pipelines checking for natural gas/oil leakage (in changing foliage colors)
The clap sound when placing a horse saddle up on its storage on barn wall
The sound from turning the separator machine (separating the cream from the milk)
The sound of a horse slurping water from the horse water tank
The neighbor’s farm dog barking and howling in the late night with a full moon (sometimes dogs howling back and forth)
The happy sounds of geese flying overhead when heading south for the winter
The sound of the cultivator turning soil in the field corn rows
The whistle sound from Dad’s fingers calling the horses (18 head) up from the orchard (overnight pasture) to come to horse watering tank and/or to work
The annoying sound of crows settling down in woods for night resting
The clap-clap sound of horses walking on firm ground
The bla-a-a-a-a sound from sheep
The sickening sound of sheep in the waiting pen – waiting for their turn to be sheared
The bleating of sheep waiting for their feed
The distant humming sound of commercial aircraft flying high overhead
Tractor pulley and blower getting silage up and over pipe top and into 30-foot silo
The sound of the emery stone as I turn the wheel and grandpa Dude sharpening the sickle
The sickle cutting the standing field foliage by horse-drawn mowing machine
Bats fluttering around inside the home attic
Sound of water as dad oars Max Henness’s boat around Lake Keomah, fishing in deep waters for bullhead fish and in surface waters for blue gill
The flop sound when getting baited hook line into the water when fishing a lake or river
Sound of the road grader machine on a county gravel road
The sound of the churn at work to make butter
In the still of the night, one can actually hear the snapping sound of young corn stalks sprouting skyward
The lonely call of the nightingale in the night silence
The swish sound of quails flying from a clover field
The call of an owl in the barn rafters
The sound of squirrels eating nuts in the forest oak trees and the snap of tree limbs as they jump from tree limb to tree limb
Rabbits scampering to safety in the pasture fields to escape down their rabbit holes
Dairy cows facing the milking barn from their night sleeping lot, bawling loudly for milking time
The dying squeal from a barn mouse being hauled away in the jaws of the farm cat
The squeal of a mouse when caught by a car
The steady chop-chop-chop of the hand hoe eliminating noxious weeds from all around the farm
Crickets chirping in the middle of the night
The howling of the wind from the barn rafters
Crows calling from the roadside
Geese calling as they pass overhead
When the wind is right, the hourly bells from the county court house 5 miles away
The whinny of a colt for its mother
The meow of cats at the kitchen backdoor
The putt-putt-bang of the John Deere tractor
The buzz of mosquitoes around your head
When cutting trees, the chopper yelling “timber”
Sun fish flapping (catching insects?) in the barnyard horse tank
The chuckle-chuckle laughter from the menfolk visiting and waiting in the living room as ladies work in the kitchen making family dinner
M&STL (Minneapolis and St. Louis) railroad station
The door hinge levers crying out
When the wind is right, the roar of race cars at the Southern Iowa Fairgrounds
The silent humming of the humming birds in flight
The buzz-buzz-buzz of honey bees from flower to flower
The silent flutter sound of butterflies from flower to flower
Auctioneer Lewis pounding his auction hammer on his desk and declaring “Sold.” Auction barn located on High Ave West, adjacent to east side of M&STL track. At age 12, I drove wagon load of pigs with tractor and unloaded pigs at east side of auction and holding pens.
Bed time prayer: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.”
Dad calling the last team pair of (18 at prime) “Bird” and her daughter “Queen” from pasture. “Here babe, come in, come.”
Calling “Get ye-up” when using the horse and calling the cows “Here Boss, here boss.”
Mother calling “Come and get it” at outdoor picnics
The sound of the side delivery rake turning the hay
The soft crunch-crunch-crunch of a cottontail rabbit hopping across new fallen snow
The five-minute bell rung by teacher to get a drink of water and use the outdoor toilet before classes start at the one-room school house
Putty-putty bang-bang of John Deere tractor adjacent to the one-room school house
Kids yelling “Ali ali ok is free play time goes” and “Last one is a skunk” (a race challenge)
Throwing a softball over the roof of the school house to the other team. “Andy Handy [or Handy Handy?] over the school house.” The other side with soft ball (as the two teams exchange sides of school house) throw ball at opposing team. If contest [caught?], then that member comes to their team. This continues until there is only one team.
Playing hide and go seek. “Ali-Ali ox in free.”
To go to outhouse: Girls – one piece of toilet paper for raising one hand; two pieces for two hands. Boys – no pieces for one hand; two pieces for two hands up
Dad saying: “Always have your boots ready!” after great-grandfather Abraham Rodgers house roof caught on fire with soot from furnace chimney. Soot from chimney fire also destroyed great-grandfather Henry Glasscock house (1937) and the Home Place (about 1970). But the East Place house was set on fire by [tenants] when Dad asked them to move out.
Mother sayings: Knock yourself out (i.e., “Go get it”; “Get started”; “Begin”). The old grey mare she ain’t what she used to be, ain’t what she used to be, ain’t what she used to be many long years ago. You are a poet and don’t know it but your feet show it; look at them Longfellows! Reply when I was upset about something, “Just consider the source and let it go at that.”
Grandpa Dude sayings: Always use the best first, then the best of what is left will always last. A little grease helps the tators go down (i.e., gravy goes well with my potatoes; I like gravy with my potatoes).
Sylvia Spalding and her father Earl Duward Rodgers

The final Iowa message/sound received, on January 1951 from the chairman on duty at the Mahaska County military draft board in reply to my notifying him of my commitment to report at Ottumwa military office for enlistment in the United States Air Force to fight in the Korean War: “God speed, young man, God speed.”