This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
On Behalf of Our Eardrums
Jul
7
2009
or “Have They Not Seen Mr. Holland’s Opus?”
My family went to the local Independence Day parade. The children, ages 5, 3, and 4 months, enjoyed the parade except for one part – the fire engines. The only time the baby cried during the parade was whenever a fire engine sounded its siren or horn. Why do the drivers of the fire engines insist on running their sirens during parades? The police cars don’t do it. Some classic cars honk their horns, but in those cases it is a song and the horns are much quieter than a fire truck’s siren or horn.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you this:
An Open Letter to the Fire Departments of America
I saw your fire engines driving in the parade. They looked very nice, but they were way too loud. If you saw me, and I was not smiling at you, it was because I was cringing at the noise and worrying about the baby’s ears. It was not because I have anything against you personally or against firefighters in general, because I don’t.
If you saw my children, and they were not waving to you, it was because their hands were holding their ears. They liked the lights, they liked seeing the fire engines from a few blocks away, but the up-close fire engines hurt their ears.
Hearing damage can be caused in a matter of seconds by sirens as loud as the ones on fire engines. Each blast of the horn, even though it is short, adds up, especially when there are a few engines in a row and they are moving slowly.
Please do not ruin the hearing of those of us who are trying to enjoy the festivities – tone it down when you are near people. A parade can be enjoyable without the sirens.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen
In looking at a few other articles, I found what is now my favorite analogy on the subject: excess or gratuitous noise is the audible equivalent to second-hand smoke. It doesn’t bother the one producing it, but innocent bystanders suffer the consequences.
No one would be bothered if the fire engines don’t blast their horns or sirens at full volume during a parade. If anyone noticed it, I bet he would be pleasantly surprised (something like “Hey, that was nice that they went by without jolting us out of our seats.”). But most people would probably like to just observe the fire engines like any other parade entry.
A siren is about 120 decibels at 10 feet. That 10 feet is about the distance from the fire engine to the parade spectators. That means that permanent hearing damage will occur in about 10 seconds.
It is interesting to note that many fire departments now have the sirens at the trucks’ bumpers, rather than on top of the cab as was the custom for so many years. The reason was to reduce the noise level in the cab. So now the sirens are aimed right at the parade spectators – about the same height as a 3- or 5-year-old child. Even more reason not to sound off during the parade.
Keep the sirens for emergencies only, please, and horns only to catch the attention of people inside cars, with glass and metal to shield them from the noise.
“He who has ears, let him hear.”
– Matthew 13:9
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 10:14 pm and has been carefully placed in the Life category.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Hey, who rained on your parade? Bring ear protection next time.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I’m tempted to bring in a device to measure the Db level during our Sunday church service. Sometimes the music is so loud I can’t hear my own voice singing.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:25 am
I try never to hear my own voice singing. That’s bad news.
November 14th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
[…] picture to show that than this? This picture was taken about a month and a half after I wrote about toning down the sirens. And I didn’t tell my kids to do that. They just instinctively know that loud sirens are bad […]