Teachers Write: Soundtrack of a Place

Home has a soundtrack. Other places do, too. And today’s TeachersWrite prompt starts with the sounds of a shopping plaza in Texas.

I’m in San Antonio wrapping up a week of school visits right now – my first time in Texas, and I can’t stop noticing all the little things that are different here. The size of the crickets (enormous!) and the sounds of the birds. The trees around my hotel swarm with grackles at night. We have the occasional grackle up north where I live, but certainly not in these numbers, and certainly not at this volume.  These birds are loud! But one of the librarians who’d picked me up at my hotel the other day had barely noticed them.  Probably because they’re part of her everyday soundtrack.

And that got me thinking….  All places have a soundtrack, whether that place is a parking lot in Texas or a hospital in London, a grandmother’s kitchen in India, or a hockey rink in Alberta.

Write a paragraph or two describing the soundtrack of your place.  This can be the place you call home, a place from your memories, or a place in a piece of writing you’re working on. (Write in your character’s voice if you’d like!)  When you describe the soundtrack, listen for the different levels of sound, too – from the loud honks, to the medium-range notes and voices, to the quiet buzz that underscores everything.  What’s the soundtrack of your place?

Feel free to share in the comments if you’d like!