What I Hear (Blog #2)

This past week, I walked around my neighborhood of Dyker Heights in Brooklyn for an hour or so.. It's not a typical neighborhood in New York where there's traffic and loud noises constantly. It's a lot more quiet but there is still constant activity.

On the front end of the my area, there is a mix of apartment buildings with restaurants, salons, convenience stores, and so on and so forth. On the side of the blocks, it's more residential so it's filled with houses. It's busier on the front part because of all the stores and activities happening.

As I was conducting my walk, it was around the late afternoon. Cars were going by, honking at the drivers in front and people were walking by me, chattering with family or friends. Now, because it's still Winter and still very cold, not too many pigeons were out and about, cooing on the streets.

Now, the area that I live in there is a supermarket close by that has a parking lot attached. I could hear the car wheels on the road, going in and out of the lot as people went grocery shopping. The sound of the grocery bags rustling against one another or against the person was relatively loud as I focused on the shoppers.

I went inside to browse the supermarket and the sounds inside all were on top of each other. Initially, there is the sound of the cash registers scanning items or the cash register opening. Then, the sound of carts going through the aisles, feet shuffling, and employees moving boxes or stocking the shelves interrupt it. Walking through the store, there is the occasional soft music playing from the speakers above.

I am constantly hearing these sorts of sounds and I ignore them everyday because it is my neighborhood. But, taking the time to really focus on one sound at a time was a really interesting experience. I had to really focus on blocking out, to the best of my abilities, all the other constant noises in order for this one type of noise to rise to the top.