Music in the Air
By Pat Gibson, March 4, 1987 
One of the first things you notice after moving to the country is how sound travels. At night, a dog will bark way up the creek. A second dog will answer him and it will go for miles as one dog barks at another. We had a miniature fox terrier once who set off dogs in two counties. She was very nearsighted and barked at the wind because she could not see what was moving in the grass. Her snappy, shrill voice carried for miles in the still night air. She would get it started and the barking cycle would go clear to Circle Drive.
Some nights when the air is still, you can hear neighbors calling their kids or the dog or a domestic quarrel. Sometimes, in the spring, you think some woman is being murdered. The first time I heard the screaming, I was sure one of the neighbors had serious problems. It was a peacock.
One of the more pleasant sounds we have drift across the meadow down by Barton Creek is music. Back when Crew One was beginning to play his trumpet, the Simpson boys were living across the creek. They were pretty good athletes and good musicians. Since the family lived in a mobile home, practice for the four boys had to be outside. Since Crew One was just learning, he had to practice outside too. Some evenings that spring, we would have two trumpets answering each other across the creek. A saxophone added its haunting call and occasionally, drum rhythms were added. If the musicians had been closer together, it might have been an awful sound, something like an orchestra tuning up. Since they were separated by the creek and lots of trees, it was very beautiful.
Neighbors to the Simpson's are the Preslar Family. They have a Gospel music singing group that appears at churches around Texas . The group is good and often they would practice out on the lawn. When the weather is warm and the air is still, we would sit out on the balcony and listen to them practice across the creek. Religious music seems very appropriate as it echoes across the valley.
Occasionally, we can hear the fire siren on the volunteer fire hall in Dripping Springs. That is almost ten miles away. Sound carries a long way in the country so fussing with the kids or your mate may end up as cafe gossip within 24 hours.
We have some fussing neighbors right now, but that's another story.
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