Comforting Sounds

I was lying on the upstairs guest bed this morning, petting Lucy, when she sat up and stared out the window. A school bus had stopped up the street and the noise it made as it revved its engine and pulled out caught her attention.

I turned nostalgic. How easy is it to close your eyes and remember the sound and smell of a school bus? The always underlying smell of fuel, the steamed windows, the humid air of too many kids crowded into one space, all stuffed into mufflers and winter coats and now perspiring in the interior heat of the bus.

But it was the sound of the heavy engine pulling away that really brought it back to me. And I started thinking of other "comfort sounds," most from childhood. We all have them. Here's my list:

• The muted whoosh-whoosh sound of the dishwasher running at night, reassuring me Mom and Dad were still up and about and therefore lessoning the chances I would be eaten alive by the monster that was surely hiding under my bed
• A crackling fire
• The distant sound of the train whistle I can hear from my bed at night
• The sound of your parents car pulling in the drive when you were being babysat
• A purring cat (it never gets old)
• Chalk writing on a chalkboard
• The radio playing softly in the mornings downstairs when I woke for school
• The satisfying "splash" sound from running and jumping in a pool
• The sound of a lone car going up the street at night
• Shawn Cassidy singing "Da-do-da-run-run" on the 45 record I used to have
• The pop sound that used to made when you pulled the metal tab off a soda
• Silverware clinking on plates at Thanksgiving
• A dogs toenails on hardwood floors
• My husband humming in the shower

It's important to remind yourself every now and then that life is good.