How Downstaters Deal with the Noise Problem

  |  October 11, 2013
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Let’s say you’re in the country for some R&R, Zen-ing out on the smell of pine needles and the crunch of them under your feet as you climb up for a stellar view of the Gunks. The silence is what overwhelms; it seems to reflect that expansive sky, all that space and clean air, no harsh zip of airplanes slicing through the quiet.

That is, until a nearby hiker starts talking about his latest trip to Home Depot, and some college kids on a rock ledge below discuss the intricacies of last night’s drunken exploits. Man, how the noise is hard to take in the country, when our ears are open. In the city, the wall of sound shuts us down: sirens and cars whizzing by, radios and crying babies. It all meshes together to form a droning that we can somehow tune out. But one lawn mower whizzing in the crisp fall afternoon can be completely unsettling. So what’s a transplant to do? We don’t have an actual answer to that question. Maybe you do?

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