Hi everyone,
The other night when I woke at 3am as I frequently do, I heard in the distance the sound of a train slowly rolling along over the track and, as always when I hear that sound, I felt myself relax and settle down again, to try to sleep.
I remember in my childhood, that I could hear this same sound frequently at nights, living as we did, near a railway track, and I guess there must be some kind of mind association with the past, which makes it so comforting for me to listen to.
We were at the poorer end of the spectrum. Living in a council house; no phone and no car, of course, but mum strove hard to keep us warm, fed and entertained and I look back on my childhood with great fondness. And a big part of that childhood was travelling by train.
Station waiting rooms often had a roaring fire, and were sometimes even segregated into male or female, which really wouldn’t do today.
Refreshment rooms were staffed by girls wearing black uniforms with white aprons and hats, but the fare on offer was definitely as questionable as it is today, and the coffee, whenever I was allowed to sip my mum’s, was enough to put you off it for life.
When travelling, black smuts from the smoke stack often flew in through the train windows and blackened our clothes, and there was a very distinct smell from that smoke.
When not travelling ourselves, we could wave off friends and family on their trips by buying a 1d (penny) platform ticket.
I can completely understand why some great, grown men get all fired up by steam trains, and travel miles at inconvenient hours, to stand with their cameras on far flung stations or in the middle of muddy fields to take pictures and enjoy the thrill of a powerful steam engine rushing by.
And I’ve enjoyed one of those outings on an old steam train myself, sitting in the dining car of bygone years, so much more comfortable than the sardine can carriages we are forced to endure today.
Nowadays I’m forced to think quite hard before shelling out for a train ticket. They are such bad value for money, and with the value of an orderly British queue also long gone too, it’s likely to be only push, shove and survival of the fittest that secures you a seat.
But trains still seem to have that hold over me, to instantly conjure up my past and to soothe me and lull me off to sleep.
In her last days my mum would settle down immediately if I played a recording of Berceuse from Gabriel Fauré's Dolly Suite. (For those of you who stretch back that far, it’s the theme tune to a long gone BBC radio program, (on the Light Programme I think), for small kids, ‘Listen with Mother’, which would be heard on the radio every weekday).
Does anyone else have a sound with the power to bring great comfort? Or maybe one that manages to soothe the person you are caring for.
