One doesn’t often see a discussion of hurricanes’ musical talents, but I happen to know that hurricanes know how to whistle. We know because we were here for H. Charley’s 1-night tour of Florida 3 weeks ago. We’re just northeast of Orlando, so the “concert” had wound down considerably by the time it got to us. At least, Charley did raise the roof here. like he did further south.
Ol’ Charley blasted out an angry & mournful tune for a good 3 hours during his performance. Now, it’s remarkable, but hurricanes can whistle with almost anything: roof structures, tree trunks, billboards, etc. Charley used my roof vents as whistles during our Friday night “session”. Fortunately, he opted to leave them attached to my roof. Charley couldn’t stay on key worth a flip (to my somewhat distracted ear); but his volume & endurance were most impressive. Wouldn’t play a jig or a reel, not for love, nor for money.
Now, Charley’s big sister is blowing into town this weekend. Sounds like she’ll compare to Charley like a Susato compares to a practice whistle. We’ll have to miss this weekend’s “session”. My wife & I will gather up the kiddies, our self-propelled dustmop (aka Marlo the cute little dog), pack up the irreplacable possessions, & my C/D Elfsong whistle set. We’re going to visit relatives who live inland. Far, far inland.
P.S. If a hurricane wants to show up at your session, turn it away. They leave absolutely the WORST mess.
They sure do! We were in North Carolina for Hurricane Fran. I remember getting up at one point in the night and hearing this high, mournful whistling noise over the more obvious roar of the wind…eerie!
You know what else? Big plastic trash cans rolling down the street sound a little like bodhrans! We heard a lot of those during Fran too, because most of the people on our block didn’t believe the reports that Fran was coming inland at full strength and left theirs out on the curb.
I remember waking up one night in Iceland to this terrible crashing noise. Looked out my third floor window to see the full-sized trash dumpster blowing end-over-end down the parking lot two or three times 'til it wedged against a pole.
LOL! Probably because you Floridians know to take hurricane warnings seriously, and take your trashcans in!
When we got the warning that Fran was going to come inland, my husband and I put all our garbage cans, outdoor furniture, etc. under the house, bought Coleman fuel and canned goods and bottled water, made sure we had enough batteries for the flashlights and radios…you know, all the stuff you’re supposed to do for that kind of thing. NO ONE ELSE was at the hardware store or the grocery store, and most of our neighbors thought we were crazy for taking everything in like that (most of them hadn’t been in NC for Hugo, so they really didn’t believe a hurricane could come so far inland). We counted them…no fewer than 20 big trash cans rolled down our street in the first hour of hurricane-force winds! It was wild!
