My parents had a dinner bell when I was a kid. I could be on the other side of the neighborhood and hear that bell. Left in the morning after chores, and had to be back when that bell rang. But if you didn't come back after that bell? Shiiiiiitt......
My mom could whistle louder than anyone I've ever met. We'd come running home or face her wrath. Once we were a bit older our adventures spanned beyond her calls and the sun became our alarm. If we were home after sundown, we were in trouble. I just took my daughter sledding for the first time and that coupled with this post have me swimming in nostalgia. I had a fun childhood; its not the time spent indoors watching movies and playing video games I remember the most vividly, it's being outdoors, building forts and playing games. I wonder if my mom can still whistle like that?
On a similar thread, I used to live up on a mountain from when I was born until I was around 11. Not a massive mountain, and we lived halfway up, but a mountain nonetheless. Now, when I was about 7-8 I'd go down to the park in the town below, maybe a mile from the house (mostly downhill). Funny thing was, this park was kind of in a "dip". If my mum ever wanted to call us to come home (this was when I had no phone - mobiles were not for children) she would stand on the garden wall, and make this COOP-COOP-COOOOOO sound. You could hear it echoing from up the the mountain and when we all turned to look, see this manic, short, curly haired woman "coop-ing" and waving her arms. It was dinner time. Ah, to be young again.
Isn't that why they call it the "holler", because you can just holler down the mountain in to the valley and hear it for a long distance? Sounds like you grew up in some cool terrain.
Maybe, but that makes sense! We could honestly hear it ages away. Ah, it was a pretty scenic area, I grew up in rural North Wales, so pretty hilly and green in most parts. We weren't in the most mountainous part of the region, Snowdonia, as we were on the coast, but we had a few nice mountains around us.