Explanation: I took a parenting class once that recommended some kind of signal to let the family know they needed to calm down and relax. For those times when the kids were fighting or the parents were yelling or things were generally out of hand, there needed to be a chance to break it up with a Quiet Time signal. And what suggests Quiet Time better than a klaxon?
Update: You can find these things on eBay. Outstanding!
Pretty good, although the going rate of $400 on Ebay is maybe a bit steep.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd *really* like is one of the old hand-cranked air-raid sirens, though. Not only are they loud, but you can use them when there is no electrical power available. Like out at a remote rocket-launch site.
Good call. They're much more affordable.
ReplyDeleteHuh, so they are! Last time I looked for them on Ebay, they didn't have any, but now it looks like there is quite a bunch. Maybe I should buy one while they are available . . .
ReplyDeleteThe ancestral homestead up in Orange County had an alley that ran behind it. On or abutting that alley was a vacant lot, basketball hoops and our friends' back yards.
ReplyDeleteIn the afternoon/early evening, my brothers, my sister and I could've been anywhere up and down that alley and the adjacent fun zones.
At 5:15ish every evening, Mom would step out on the back porch and start ringing a cowbell as the signal that dinner was about to be served. (It was suburbia's answer to Jeeves ringing the dinner bell)
Didn't matter what we were doing, we were gone. Locked up in tight one playing hoops? Sorry, fellas. Gotta beat feet and score some grub.
That cowbell was legendary in the neighborhood.
Ran kind of long but that klaxon brought back some good memories.
What a missed opportunity! You needed one of these on the old Dart!
ReplyDeleteDean,
I remember a neighbor having one of those triangular chuck wagon things. Same effect as the cow bell.