Remember the neighborhood when in the park

Summer is in full swing which means folks are flocking to parks, like the one across the street from my house. This park is one of many neighborhood parks in Olympia nestled into residential areas, which mean families live around these recreational areas.

Because of this, I’m beseeching all readers to be mindful of their noise levels when visiting residential parks.

Today, for instance, went from placid Sunday morning to migraine city in minutes thanks to a man in a baseball cap who parked his huge, furiously loud truck across the street and left it running for 30 minutes while texting.

The usual Clamor Culprits are men in loud vehicles, knuckle-dragging adolescent male youth engaging in various feats-of-strength that inevitably involve strange, harsh vocalizations and the clobbering of trashcans, and overly zealous young adult males leading religious youth groups who assume their young participants are either hard of hearing or bored.

Loud noises can wake up babies and disturb the sound-sensitive. I have a family member whose manic depression is triggered by loud noises, lapsing her into spells of mania or depression. I have tinnitus from minimum wage work in Seattle. Loud sounds are painful.

What doesn’t even register in someone’s consciousness can be jarring, grating, excruciating for others.

But most significantly, loud gale-force sounds drown out the chirping of birds and all that is glorious about the Pacific Northwest in summer. Being chased inside during a season of surreal beauty just feels cruel.

So please be mindful.

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 11:41 AM with the headline "Remember the neighborhood when in the park."