noises
I was sitting outside earlier and I heard a plane going overhead. This isn't unusual. We have an airfield a few Ks down the road. Small planes buzz across the sky all the time. In summer the CALM spotter planes do boglaps on hot days. Hearing a plane is nothing new.
Usually, the planes are high. I can hear them but it isn't intrusive. This morning's plane was low. And loud. It made me look.
The RFDS logo was clearly visible on the plane's tail. It made my heart do a flip and I thought "someone's in trouble".
In years gone by, emergency vehicles all had a distinctive sound. Ambulances went be boo be boo, police went wah wah and fire trucks wailed. And, in those days, they were all just emergency vehicles, even police. No-one thought of the coppers as being "after you". They were there to help. They directed traffic (does anyone else remember The Skull from the corner of Swanson and Flinders in Melbourne?), they found lost children and gave directions. Occasionally they gave a young lout a bit of a scare or chased waggers back to school. Sometimes they might catch the odd criminal but it had nothing to do with us. The heelers, in those days, were our friends, not the big bad they are today.
When we heard a siren we knew someone was in trouble. Not bad trouble because of what they had done but needing-help sort of trouble.
Sirens were not used unless it was urgent. There was none of the constant wailing we hear on the latest cop shows. There were no protocols for Code 1 situations. Use of sirens was discretionary. And they were used rarely.
As a kid, most sirens we heard were fire trucks. We lived in a bush area and fire was a constant threat. If the fire was bad, we might also hear a policeman wah wah-ing his way up to help.
I have vivid recollections of my mum's reaction to sirens. She would stop what she was doing, look up and listen. Then she would say "someone's in trouble" and go outside to stand on the road and look for smoke. No matter what siren she heard, she would look for smoke.
If a neighbour wandered out to the road (as they often did), or was there before her, she would greet them with exactly the same words. "Someone's in trouble." Then they would search the sky together.
AS I stood on my verandah this morning, watching that little plane pass overhead, I heard my mother's voice in my head, loud and clear. I felt a sudden urge to walk out to the road and scan the horizon.
Someone's in trouble.
Early learning is a hard habit to kick.
4 comments:
most people here in america do not have that sense of community like you have there these days. when i hear a siren, if it gets close, i listen to see if it comes here, when it does not, i go about my business; never once do i think, 'someones in trouble'.
Most times I say a little prayer when I hear a siren. I started that even before both my boys started driving. :)
Our state's emergency helicopter service is called LifeStar. They use a field near my house to land and pick up victims. Hearing that come in is heart-stopping, knowing someone is so seriously hurt.
It's odd - Yvonne and I have similar experiences. We don't have a field near us, but our emergency copters are called Medflight, and we're on the direct path to the hospital landing pad.
Recently, the whole flight was in trouble - a team of two doctors, a pilot, medtech and volunteer crashed into Lake Michigan on the way to get a heart for a transplant - it was extremely sad.
Two years ago, the helicopter crashed on the roof of the hospital where I work. I had just gone home and missed it. Fortunately nothing was hurt but the copter and the roof. The patient was unconscious and knew nothing of the accident.
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