The Most Exciting Sound in the World

I disagree with George Bailey. It’s not anchor chains, plane motors or train whistles. Even Uncle Billy got it wrong. It’s not “breakfast is served,” “lunch is served,” or “dinner is served.”

No, “the most exciting sound in the world” is a screen door.

Not a combination door with an automatic closer, but an old wooden screen door with a metal spring that goes “skritch skritch stretch” when it opens, and “wham” when it slams.

It’ll take you back. Back to your youth. Even back to your childhood when you lived in the country. With only a screen door standing between you and a carefree morning in the woods with your brother or your friends.

So when I built an art studio in my back yard, it had to have a screen door. To keep the mosquitos and flies out, of course; to prevent the cats from pooping in the dirt of my dioramas; but mostly so I could slam it.

The house number on my screen door  is 6708, and it’s painted an old 1950’s pink. I got my screen door from the architectural salvage store. Maybe some day somebody will come to visit, and they’ll say, “Hey, I grew up at 6708 Such and Such a street. Our screen door was pink.” Then they’ll open it and let it slam.

I’ll turn away politely and let them enjoy the fountain of youth again.

Would you like to hear it?

“. . . then his flesh is renewed like a child’s; it is restored as in the days of his youth.”
Elihu in Job 33:25 (NIV)

‘Nuther “Most Exciting Sound in the World”

I take that back. There’s not just one “most exciting sound in the world.” There are actually two, and if I think about it long enough I may come up with three.

The first one is the sound that an old-fashioned screen door makes when you slam it (see my earlier post).

The second, the sound of an in-line Chevy 6 engine with dual exhausts and glasspack mufflers.

In 1962 the engine of my ’53 Chevy needed help. The previous owner had beat the tar out of his dad’s low-mileage Two-Ten 2-door, and now it was time for me, the third owner, to fix it.

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I wanted to listen to it one more time, and to preserve the sound for future generations. So I set up the Webcor tape recorder (reel to reel) and placed the microphone in my upstairs bedroom window.

In this recording you’ll hear me race down the stairs, run through the dining room and the kitchen, slam that wonderful screen door, then start the old warrior and rev it up.

You can call ’em anything you like: “duals,” “twins,” “pipes,” “twice pipes,” or just “those obnoxious neighbor kids raising heck again,” but the sound still reminds me of a WWII dive bomber.

Listen to this, and let it take you back to the day.

Where were you in ’62?

One More “Most Exciting Sound in the World”

I know. I know. I understand the comparative and superlative. Good, better, best, and all that. Not all of these sounds can be “the most exciting.” Humor me one more time.

Here’s another recording from 1962. I wanted to preserve the sound of my ’51 Chevy with its loud pipes (actually, one muffler was stock and the other was home-made).
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So I set up the Webcor tape recorder and put the microphone in my folks’ bedroom window. Then I did a drive-by.

Unbeknownst to me, Dad got on the mic and narrated. “Fifty-Four” was my brother Richard in his ’54 Chevy Powerglide, and Dad called me “Five-One.” Pretty corny.

For years I regretted that he had messed up my recording, but now I realize that hearing his voice again might be the “most exciting sound in the world.” Listen to this!


Where were you in ’62?

Forgiveness

Thank you for reading Prodigal Pig Tale. If you haven’t read it, you’ll find it by clicking HERE. It’s a story about forgiveness for “kids of all ages.”

Even if you’re very young, you know that you’ve done things that need to be forgiven. And you know that you need to forgive other people for bad things they have done to you. You probably also understand that you’ll never really be happy unless you forgive and are forgiven.

Here’s what I want to tell you about that:

1. Forgiveness begins with God.

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The God who made us wants to give us something very special. He wants to give us a wonderful gift. He wants to give us eternal life, life that goes on forever and forever in Heaven, with Him.

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But we have a problem. God’s book, the Bible, tells us that we have all done bad things. These bad things are called “sin.” They’re things that make God sad. He can’t let us into Heaven because our sins would ruin Heaven.

The Bible tells us that our sins have separated us from God, so He must turn away from us. We can never see God because of our sins. The penalty for sin is separation from God forever.

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But God loves us very much. The Bible says that “. . . God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes on Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

God’s Son Jesus died on a cross to pay for our sins. He took our punishment for us.

But the really wonderful thing is that He came back to life and went back to Heaven where He is waiting for us.

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Now God is free to offer us a wonderful gift. “The gift of God is eternal life,” says the Bible. He offers to forgive us and to take away our sins so that we may enter Heaven and live with Him forever and forever. He wants to give us the wonderful gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

When somebody gives you a gift, what do you do? You reach out and take it. You accept it. What do you say? You say “thank you.”

Have you ever received God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life? You can trust Him right now to give it to you.

 

2. Now that you have been forgiven, it’s easier to forgive people who have done bad things to you.

ABOUT OUR NEW BOOK

Prodigal Pig Tale is a book for kids of all ages. It’s about life on a pig farm (No, it’s not a real house. It’s a 1:18 scale model that we built from scratch).

WHY PIGS?

“A cat looks down upon a man, and a dog looks up to a man, but a pig will look a man in the eye and see his equal.” Sir Winston Churchill

For me, it all started back in 1965 when J. Vernon McGee told the story of the prodigal son, and jokingly mentioned “the prodigal pig.” The idea stuck with me.

In 1985 my thirteen-year-old son made our first pig, Pablo Pigcasso, using craft clay. Old Pigcasso sat there smiling at me for years, and gently prodded me to tell a story about the prodigal pig.

Since then I’ve discovered that we can learn a lot from unlikely sources. Even from pigs. This book, Prodigal Pig Tale, is about forgiving and being forgiven.

Don Regier