By Shannon Williams
Noise is defined as “a sound, especially one that is loud or unpleasant or that caused a disturbance.” I have had a lot of noise in my life as of late. When you live on Crystal Beach, you sometimes forget how noisy the rest of the world is. It is hard to listen when there is noise nearby. I love to listen, when there is no noise, when you have to listen for the sounds or lack of.

Several weeks ago, there was a renter on our road, we live bayside, not a lot of renters near us. They had rented a house at the end of our road and this house has a great deal of land surrounding it. They must have known that and rented the house due to the area of empty land surrounding the house, as they had no fewer than 4 ATVs. I know in my heart all they wanted was to get out of the city and ride ATV round and around in circles. I wish they had just been riding in circles, but no, there were going up and down the street over and over again for three days, at all hours of the night and day. I wanted not to be upset by the noise, and just let them enjoy their vacation and be able to enjoy the outdoors. Well that did not work, I just got madder and madder with each trip of one of the 4 ATVs that they made up and down the road, going way too fast. I was never so happy to see Monday morning come as I watched them pull out of the neighborhood.

The next two weekends (Crabfest and Jeep Weekend) both had their share of noise, good and bad. We needed to go to a Birthday party in the Houston area this past weekend, so we decided just to spend the night in Houston. I stay in hotels all the time and have had all kinds of noises that keep me up, but this was kind of funny. We shall call it the Bathroom late night dance! I was sleeping just fine and then I heard noise from above me. Someone must have jumped out of the bed and ran all the way to the bathroom! I wonder if they were ok, but in no time, it was my turn for a late-night bathroom visit. As it works in our house, one of us has to go in the middle of the night and the other one wakes up and decides they should also go. So, it was almost 45 minutes before I settled back down after the noise from above. In no time at all, round two started and they were up again and jumped out of bed and ran again. They must have eaten something that did not agree with them LOL. This went on a few more times, I felt sorry for them, but it was funny that the person in the room above us could set our bathroom schedule as each time they got up, so did we!

I know that summer brings noise; I think the sirens get to me more than anything. I always try to say a little prayer when I hear a siren, as I know something bad has happened, but some weekends they are just never ending and it does worry me. I worry about the first responders, the people who need help and those who love them. Lifes change in split seconds and some people have to live with a life that is very different than what they had just five minutes earlier. Crystal Beach is really a fun place and I do want everyone to enjoy it, but sun and booze and lots of people in the water and driving all kinds of vehicles can often lead to such tragedy. I wish we could here the laughter of all those playing at the beach instead of the sounds of siren, that would be a welcome noise.

[May-17-2021]