Last night, I awoke at 3:30 AM—I know I am not alone in this. I imagine millions of people of a certain age wake up and stay awake. It seems that worries of the day are amplified at this hour. This morning, I thought, my goodness, what problem was I trying to solve in the middle of the night? I honestly cannot remember.
Amid all this midnight fretting, along comes unexpected joy: a train whistle. A long series of train whistles, which brings me instant comfort and gives me an incredible feeling of all being right in the world.
A few years ago, my parents lamented that the train whistle in their town had been silenced. So many people in the community had complained that it was waking them up at night that they decided to halt the whistles. So, the mournful sound of a whistle as the train rolled through town was gone. They miss it. I would too.
What is it about the sound of a train whistle that brings me, perhaps many of us, such joy? Could it be nostalgia? My husband tells me it reminds him of his visits to his grandparents in Marion, Iowa, where the train rumbled right through the middle of town. I, too, have fond memories of the train rolling by a few blocks away from my grandparents’ house in Everly, Iowa.
Perhaps it is the tone of the whistle – something especially pleasurable to some part of our brain.
Most likely, it is a mystery, like so many things in our lives that bring us joy, that we cannot necessarily explain: my grandson’s laughter, sitting out on my patio on a warm spring day, my dog’s wild enthusiasm for me when I finally walk in the door.
A train’s distant whistle in the middle of the night gives me a feeling of life going on without me, even while I sleep. Indeed, the world keeps turning, and life is generally good. I can stop worrying for now.
I pull the blankets up to my chin, roll over, and fall back asleep.