Chicago has a city wide air siren that they test on the first Tuesday of the month at 10:00 for thirty seconds.
For those of you who, like me, do not live in a city that does this, please note that the testing of the siren (which is louder and more terrifying than a subsonic jet fighter passing through your kitchen) is absolutely no reason to leap out of your hotel bed where you were having a much needed nap, run to the window to look for tornados or the horsemen of the apocalypse while trying to figure out how to seek shelter and bursting into hot, frightened tears because you simply cannot believe that after all of this you are going to be killed in Chicago.
That will be all.
LOL! I’m so sorry!
I have limited experience with that actually and it scares me every time I hear one.
Believe it or not, my former little town on the Ohio River does the same thing. One of the sirens is at a public playground. Imagine what that does for toddlers! Generally the moms just pull them close to their bodies and try to smother their ears. So sorry for you.
I always wondered happened to out-of-towners if they were around in my town when the sirens were tested. I guess you are just supposed to believe that real emergencies don’t happen on the hour.
So sorry – we Chicagoans are so used to it that we barely notice it. I was a little girl when they started it back in the days of fall out shelters at the most paranoid part of the Cold War (in about 1954). I remember how much it scared me then but after so many years – it’s just background noise. As teenagers, we used to joke that, if the Russians wanted to bomb Chicago, all they had to do was make sure they did it on Tuesday at 10:00 & everyone would ignore the sirens!
oh my !!! I would have burst into tears too….
I can imagine to someone not used to it, that would be a terrifying experience!
Around here we are so used to it we barely pay attention. Growing up in the Midwest, the shape of the clouds in the sky and whether or not the weather forcasters have been on air continuously for the last three and a half hours is a better indicator of storm danger.
We do that in the Bay Area too! In the area I live it is first wed at 11! When my husband first moved up here- I forgot to warn him. He heard it and called me in a panic! I have some lung issues and he wanted to be sure I had closed all windows etc. Now, whenever we meet anyone who just moved here, it is the FIRST thing he tells them!
Poor dear. I hope you’ve recovered.
I followed the links, yesterday, to the pictures of you in the Bohus. Now I understand why you’re not coming to Southern California on this trip. It is altogether too warm to wear wool, here. Have your wonder publicist schedule you a trip to LA next February. I can’t guarantee you a chilly day, but you’d have a chance.
Yes, but did you grab your knitting in case you had to evacuate the hotel?
Urgh….and they say suspense keeps us young. Whilst pregnant with thing 1, we lived exactly five bldgs. away from a fire station. I cannot accurately recount the joys of having a squished, angry bladder, first time mom angst, and fire engines blazing and honking out of the station at all hours of the night. The good ole days….
Interesting that they don’t even explain the origin of the sirens. They were originally meant to warn of nuclear attack & I think that they were tested EVERY Tuesday morning. There was a big to do when they sirens were set off to celebrate when the White Sox won the pennant in 1959 – scared a great many people witless. After all not all Chicagoans are White Sox fans & not of them were watching the game. A lot of people thought it was the real thing (since it obviously was NOT a Tuesday morning).
You won’t believe this, but up here (about 3-4 hours north) the forecast is for snow and thunder. Dare I hope for thundersnow? Even though I just got all last year’s leaves raked and bagged, and the trees are beginning to bud?
Re: sirens, I used to live a mile or so from a major railyard. One day their alarm went off, and my then-husband sat bolt upright, terrified. It was the same siren he had heard in the duck-and-cover years at the Air Force base his family lived on.
Here in my tiny town of New Buffalo, MI we hear the siren every day at noon. Sharp.
Sirens aside, ya just gotta love Chicago!
You got off easy………….When I moved here in 1974 from Florida, I had no idea that Chicago was infamous for quick-changing weather. In 1975, on this very date, we had a beautiful sunny, warm day that by noon had changed to sleet and ended up with about 14 inches of Spring snow. Be glad you got into town when you did — the weather can ruin all kinds of activities and we just might end up with snow by tonight. Welcome to one of the most beautiful cities in the country!
I’m sorry for your scare … and your ruined nap. The Midwest is big on warning sirens for things like tornado season, which it is. They apparently are the easiest way to warn thousands of people (some of whom may not be listening to the radio or TV) at once that they need to duck.
Perhaps you could suggest to the hotel management that they warn guests — presumably visitors who may not be familiar with Chicago’s habits — when such things are upcoming.
Oh my! I would have needed clean underwear! Hope you got to finish your nap.
Oh Stephanie, I am indeed sorry that you had a heart-stopping moment like that. I work near a fire station and the sirens always make me feel uneasy, and at least I know what it is! You must have been quite terrified, especially being away from home. Take care,
Oh, dear, that would’ve scared me to no end!
Fair warning, if you’re ever in Homer Alaska (about 4 hours south of Anchorage) and you hear a tsunami siren at precisely noon on the first whichever day of the month (I can never remember which day, so it usually surprises me…) well, it’s probably just a warning too…
Hope the rest of your time in Chicago is less, hmm, thrilling.
Holy crap. It’s good to be alive!
FYI, that happens in Minnesota at 1 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month…so be prepared tomorrow!
HA HA! Our city doesn’t do this. I’m so glad.
Hot, frightened tears. (snicker) It’s lines like these that make you such a great writer.
Stephanie will be on Knitty Gritty on April 17 at 2.00 p.m. eastern time. DIY emailed me this info after I hounded them for a month. Knitters, set your VCRs (or TiVo, or whathaveyou).
Since you will be in Minnesota on the first Wednesday of the month, know we test our sirens at 1 p.m., sharp. Some large buildings will also conduct an internal test (often with a nervous security person stuttering into the public address system) that includes a truely obnoxious warning whoop-whoop-whoop.
I was always bothered by the fact that they chose to do that. And then, I moved back to Indiana. The siren test in the college town I lived in was the first *Sunday* of the month at 11am. Just to be sure they kept you from sleeping in “unreasonably” one day a month. As an adult, I usually am up by then. For the college kids (and myself when I was one of them), there isn’t enough foul language to describe the feelings on this one.
I don’t want to be taken out by a tornado or anything, but I still wonder – is this REALLY necessary??
I’m so sorry – what a crappy way to wake up!
I’m just glad we don’t do that for earthquakes out here in California! It’s much easier to live with this type of natural disaster if you don’t know it’s coming.
Awww…. sorry. Our testing is on the first Saturday of the month. Though they aren’t sensitive about NOT testing them if there is severe weather in the state. So there have been times when we couldn’t tell if it was a test of for real.
Not many tornados in Toronto, ‘eh? Go back to sleep, I know you need it!
🙂
Cincinnati used to do it on the first Wednesday of the month around noon. Don’t know if they still do or not, but just so you know in case you find yourself there.
Off topic a bit, have you seen this?
http://www.lystour.com/
Maybe your wonder-publicist can schedule you into the Seattle/Bellingham area for the weekend of May 18-20?
OMG, you made me spit coffee all over my keyboard. I can’t even imagine you distress, but the visual is hilarious.
Shouldn’t they have a requirement to warn people checking in to hotels that this happens?
The sirens go off all over the state. No one knows what would happen if a real tornado happened at 10 am the first Tues. of the month. I guess we’d all be toast.
The sirens go off all over the state. No one knows what would happen if a real tornado happened at 10 am the first Tues. of the month. I guess we’d all be toast.
The sound of a tornado siren used to send my stomach into my throat. But in the last 6 months I have gotten used to it because we bought a house over the summer that has the siren only one yard away from our back yard and they don’t just ring it for tornadoes, they use it for whenever the fire department is called anywhere in the whole COUNTY. so sirens at 3 am, noon or 10 pm, anything goes and I’ve heard a siren as many as 5 times in one day! sheesh. (of course we had no idea our little village did this before we moved here.)
Sorry about that Stephanie! We certainly didn’t mean to welcome you to Chicago by scaring the crap out of you! Try knitting–it will help calm you down. 🙂 I am just glad you are already in town, seeing as how our weather has been nasty this morning. I am very much looking forward to being in the audience tonight at Borders to hear you speak and hopefully get a book signed. I was supposed to teach a felted bag class tonight, but got my students to switch to tomorrow night so that I could come see you!
Oh, sweetie! Well I remember the first time I heard one of those, going to college in St. Louis. Near as I can figure, the damn thing was a block from my apartment – scared the bejeezus out of me the first time I heard it. I hope you were able to get back to sleep….
(They don’t have them in Denver, to the best of my knowledge, which is just as well…there’s precious little oxygen here, and waking up in a panic is likely to leave you breathless and woozy.)
Yep. There are some good reasons why some of us choose to live on 4 acres in the Maine woods, seven miles from the nearest grocery. We have to drive, but all we hear are the deer, fox, eagles, partridges, loons, fishers, et al. Big cities have advantages, but quiet is not one! I am itching to get my hands on your book – Borders has 18 coming in but not here yet.
Glad to see that betty already warned you about MN’s test. I would hate to see you come undone two days in a row.
Safe travels.
Ya know, I’ve always been of the opinion that hotels should really post lists of these things where you’re SURE not to miss it. “NOTICE: Ignore the heart stopping siren that blares on the first Tuesday of every month at 10:00 am. If it’s not the first Tuesday at 10:00 am and you hear the siren…” OK, maybe that’s why they don’t do that.
We have this too and I fall for it EVERYTIME!
well. atleast you didnt poop your pants. it could have been worse. 😉
Hehehe. We do it in Eastern Iowa, too! First Wed of the month. Not only do we have sirens going, we also have a Big Brother voice telling us that “it’s only a test.”
Welcome to the Midwest.
Hee! I’m from Wisconsin and my city did the testing on the first Monday of the month. There was one right on top of the high school, made classes rather difficult for a couple minutes! A person really does get used to it, but hotels should totally warn visitors!
Ok Miz Stephanie, we’re all ready for you out here in Oak Brook! I’m working right across the street from the Borders and I’m heading over immediately after work to try, inconspicuously of course, to NOT look like a Harlot Stalker. I’ve duly notified them with The Big Important (but polite) Letter and pictures that your fans will be flocking in DROVES to see you tonight. I’m hoping the weather holds out for you while you’re here. I’m glad you made it into town alright, when I saw the weather on the news this morning (something about silly nickel sized hail headed straight towards us from the west), I was worried about your travel plans. Glad to hear you made it alive and sorry aout those ridiculous sirens. The saddest thing is that the natives don’t even hear them anymore… Oh, and can I bring a pair of newly completed socks since I just finished them last night? I’ll cast on for a new pair this aft while I’m Harlot Stalking, I mean patiently waiting, but I hope newly completed ones are invited, too! We’re soooo excited you’re here. Sorry for rambling. Shutting up now.
Oohhh… Poor Dear! I absolutely hate to be startled, especially out of sound sleep. That happened to me this morning, with the biggest thunder-clap I’ve heard in a while. Freaked the dogs out, but good!
Shall I send more chocolate?
Aww *hugs*
if it’s any consolation, I would’ve reacted in exactly the same way.. and I’m sure there are others out there that would too…
Really? I’ve lived in Chicago for years and never noticed. Huh. The only time I heard the siren was when we actually had a tornado. I was used to sirens by that point, having lived in Tornado Valley for years, but the actual tornado part freaked me out.
Anyway. Sorry it freaked you out.
Oy. I can imagine your panic. Good thing you don’t have a heart condition!
When I worked in downtown San Francisco a life ago, I remember they had one that went off on the dot of noon on some certain day. It was pretty scary the first time.
Ah, sweet, sweet Midwest. It seems all of the states around here use old nuclear sirens/tornado sirens whenever we get the chance, and test them often enough to scare the pants off of visitors. Hell, Grand Rapids still keeps Cold War shelter signs hung and maintained, which seems to make people from out of town nervous if they see them. Add in the sirens, and occasionally new people just *panic*…heh.
Did you manage to get back to napping?
I used to live in Chicago and I actually kind of liked that siren. But I’d forgotten all about it! For ten years I’ve lived in Massachusetts and I don’t think I’ve ever heard one of those sirens here. I don’t think they have them in New England. At least not in western Mass.
When you come to visit WEBS in May, you won’t be wakened from naps by ridiculous sirens!
Minnesota tests their sirens at 1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of the month. By my calculations, tomorrow is that first Wednesday and you will be in Minnesota, so, unless you see natives heading for the basement at full speed, you’ll be okay.
Welcome to Tornado Alley. Sorry about the test – it’s generally the first Wednesday of every month.
I hope this won’t stop your plans to come to Kansas City.
Oh wait. Please make some plans to come to Kansas City!!
Sorry about that….they do it in most of the suburbs here too.
We had a false fire alarm this morning at 9:45. It is sad to work in a building where this is such a natural occurence that we stay at our desks.
BTW- if you are in downtown Chicago….you don’t really need to worry about tornadoes….they don’t usually come that close to the lake!
I promise to buy you a beer to make up for it!
I would like to offer you a warning that it is sleeting/snowing here today and since the weather is not set to warm up, when you are here in Minnesota tomorrow, you may want to remember your sweatshirt.
It’s not pretty April weather.
I would like to offer you a warning that it is sleeting/snowing here today and since the weather is not set to warm up, when you are here in Minnesota tomorrow, you may want to remember your sweatshirt.
It’s not pretty April weather.
I LOVED seeing you this morning on ABC7 morning news. You were GREAT. You must have had to get up awfully early! I complain about my baby-induced sleep deprivation, but at least I was still horizontal til 6. Sorry your nap was interrupted; I know how important they are! When I had my first baby, where we lived the siren pole was across the street. I decided that if it ever woke my daughter (not a good sleeper) up, I’d take my postpartum anger and an axe and go chop it down!
They had those sirens at my junior high school. The first time I heard them I thought the commies were dropping The Bomb. This was 1971.
Chicago is a great city. Stop napping and get out there and see some of it!!
Oh you poor thing! That’s nasty. Quick hugs, and back to bed with you. This too shall pass….
But it did what it was supposed to do – wake you up and put you in a scurry-to-a-safe-place (albeit panicked) mode.
The last time my husband (a very sound sleeper) went on a trip, he awoke to 3 AM hotel loudspeaker announcement saying that the fire had been taken care of and it was now safe for guests to return to their rooms. He never heard the initial announcement, fire siren, or anything. Zzzz…
I LOVED seeing you this morning on ABC7 morning news. You were GREAT. You must have had to get up awfully early! I complain about my baby-induced sleep deprivation, but at least I was still horizontal til 6. Sorry your nap was interrupted; I know how important they are! When I had my first baby, where we lived the siren pole was across the street. I decided that if it ever woke my daughter (not a good sleeper) up, I’d take my postpartum anger and an axe and go chop it down!
I remember that from my trip to Chicago in October. I was sitting in class and it went off… all I could think was that the building was falling down around me. Quite the scare.
I remember that from my trip to Chicago in October. I was sitting in class and it went off… all I could think was that the building was falling down around me. Quite the scare.
Ditto on making plans to come to Kansas City! Just don’t come on the first Wednesday of the month when they test the sirens.
wow what a wake-up call. Now I don’t want you falling asleep with your DPNs in bed. They be doing that whacky loud stuff in that there Chicago and you’ll be needing clean undies,nuff said.
oh yeah. and they do that in tornado areas too. St Louis, etc.
first time it happened to me i was UNDER a parked car before my local friends could figure out where i was. it took them several minutes to figure out what happendd, as the (expletive deleted) locals didnt even notice it anymore….
scary loud things, ugh.
wow what a wake-up call. Now I don’t want you falling asleep with your DPNs in bed. They be doing that whacky loud stuff in that there Chicago and you’ll be needing clean undies,nuff said.
Funny! Ours goes off at the same time. So when mine was going off and I was thinking hey, it’s 10am in Tueasday, you were freaking out! Sorry!
See you tonight in Oak Brook! I have to pack!
Funny! Ours goes off at the same time. So when mine was going off and I was thinking hey, it’s 10am in Tueasday, you were freaking out! Sorry!
See you tonight in Oak Brook! I have to pack!
You mean they gave you time to nap?? Musta been a mistake.
I’m not sure what time you are arriving in MN tomorrow (Wednesday) but we’ll be doing the same thing at 1:00pm. I think it lasts longer than 30 seconds.
Seriously… shame on the hotel for not telling EVERYONE who checked in for that day. They KNOW you’re from out of town. How awful. There should be huge signs posted all over the airports too. Places in which you know there are tourists and visitors.
After the shock you laughed – right? ‘Cause then I could be laughing with you & not at you.
Well, maybe tomorrow or next year you’ll think it’s funny!!
I take it they don’t drill for tornoadoes so much in Toronto? Yeah they are pretty fun. we have one that goes off like once a week around noon. the problem with that is, you get used to it and you start to ignore it.
I’m so upset I can’t make it out this time! 🙁 i guess my copy of your newest book will be the unsigned red-headed-stepchild of the bunch.
I’m so sorry, Stephanie. They should definitely have a note about that in the hotel rooms–in large print and in a prominent place! (Like the middle of the bathroom mirror . . . )
The only experience I have with those types of sirens was when we were evacuated by one on a Tsunami warning during our vacation on the Oregon coast two years ago. I don’t think I’ve ever been so frightened, waiting on a nearby mountainside to see a tsunami come and sweep away the hotel where we were staying. I didn’t cry–the kids were too young and would have completely freaked out. But I wanted to. Consider yourself hugged . . . if you accept hugs from commiserating knitters. ;o)
That happened to my brother not long after we moved to tornado alley — the sirens went off and he freaked, until I told him it was just a drill. If you aren’t used to it, it can definitely be a startling experience.
Funny! I lived there for 8 years and I don’t think I ever really noticed it after the first one! Sorry! See you tonight! I have to pack and hit the road for that 2 1/2 hour drive there!
Ha–I live in Chicago, and I was confused by the same sirens this morning…even though I grew up in a town in which the sirens went off on the first Tuesday of every month. For some reason, it always surprises me when it happens here.
I wish I could see your talk tonight, but OakBrook is too out of the way for me. I will knit socks and imagine it.
I take it they don’t drill for tornoadoes so much in Toronto? Yeah they are pretty fun. we have one that goes off like once a week around noon. the problem with that is, you get used to it and you start to ignore it.
I’m so upset I can’t make it out this time! 🙁 i guess my copy of your newest book will be the unsigned red-headed-stepchild of the bunch.
I LOVED seeing you this morning on ABC7 morning news. You were GREAT. You must have had to get up awfully early! I complain about my baby-induced sleep deprivation, but at least I was still horizontal til 6. Sorry your nap was interrupted; I know how important they are! When I had my first baby, where we lived the siren pole was across the street. I decided that if it ever woke my daughter (not a good sleeper) up, I’d take my postpartum anger and an axe and go chop it down!
I’m so sorry, Stephanie. They should definitely have a note about that in the hotel rooms–in large print and in a prominent place! (Like the middle of the bathroom mirror . . . )
The only experience I have with those types of sirens was when we were evacuated by one on a Tsunami warning during our vacation on the Oregon coast two years ago. I don’t think I’ve ever been so frightened, waiting on a nearby mountainside to see a tsunami come and sweep away the hotel where we were staying. I didn’t cry–the kids were too young and would have completely freaked out. But I wanted to. Consider yourself hugged . . . if you accept hugs from commiserating knitters. ;o)
Fair warning: Here in Minnesota, we test our tornado sirens at 1pm sharp on the first Wednesday of the month. Since it seems likely you’ll be here are that point, don’t be too surprised!
(Also, it’s currently precipitating in a frozen manner here. Not quite rain, not quite sleet, not quite snow. Hope that all the flying goes well)
Yes, in San Francisco there’s the weekly Earthquake Check at noon on Tuesday. I guarantee that in two and a half hours when the air-raid goes off, I will for one split second consider ducking-and-covering under my desk until I check the time.
I’ve lived here for a year now and it never gets old.
Jaymie The Wonder Publicist Sighting!
I was in a meeting at an art gallery yesterday when two very lovely young women walked on. I, being a very nosy woman, started to chat them up and found out they worked at Storey Publishing and so I said “oh, you must know Yarn Harlot Stephanie” to which the blond said “I’m her publicist” Much hilarity ensued and we talked about knitter’s representing at Mass MoCA here in North Adams, MA. Jayme is a doll, you are a very lucky author!
You poor thing! I can relate – I live about 30 meters away from the river Elbe. A few days after moving there last year I had pretty much the same reaction when they tested the flood warning sirens for the first time (Saturdays at noon). Actually, I remember screeching “what have we done?” and searching desperately for the cats. 🙂
Here in Dallas it’s the first Wednesday of the month, high noon! It always startles you, until you realize what day it is.
OMG, you poor woman. I hope someone buys you an extra margarita to make up for that, m’dear.
(If you come to Arizona again, I will do just that, but I don’t think there are any sirens here aside from the usual emergency vehicles.)
(laughing) I’m sorry to be laughing. They do that in Kansas too from April through October- its their tornado warning testing. The first time I heard it my daughter was overdue and I almost went into labor while I was calling all my in-laws to find out what to do. How long did it take your heartbeat to return to normal? (still chuckling- in sympathy)
Holy Sheep! I can’t believe the hotel doesn’t warn you! You poor thing! I hope you got back to sleep, once your heart-rate got back below 200. Everyone send soothing thoughts harlot-ward…
Dearest Harlot- I can only offer 2 suggestions- and honestly- they are not suggestions I make often.
Mimosa or beer- for breakfast. Medicinal purposes- Woman- your nerves are shot. You need sustenance.
I spent some of my formative years traveling between Kankakee, IL (where I lived between the ages of 5 and 8) and Chicago, IL (where my grandparents lived at the time). I have a VERY clear memory of driving back to Kankakee with the sirens blaring while the trees bent so far backwards that I was convinced they would break. I have never been more frightened in my life. Those darned tornado sirens still give me the heebie-jeebies!
I spent some of my formative years traveling between Kankakee, IL (where I lived between the ages of 5 and 8) and Chicago, IL (where my grandparents lived at the time). I have a VERY clear memory of driving back to Kankakee with the sirens blaring while the trees bent so far backwards that I was convinced they would break. I have never been more frightened in my life. Those darned tornado sirens still give me the heebie-jeebies!
just a tiny bit funny. they do that here, danville, IL. i won’t know how to act if i ever hear it being used for its real purpose. i’ll just think to myself, oh it’s the first tuesday. 🙂 hope you are fine.
awwwww, Stef..I would have warned you had I known. It’s become such a common thing, that when the siren goes off, you kind of sit there and think…oh, yeah, it’s the first Tuesday. My first time, had me thinking of the end of the world too.
Looking forward to seeing you tonight.
Yep. A sign you should have been in the Quad Cities instead… Although, I’d pay money to see those sirens bring the horsemen of the apocalypse instead of the usual funnel clouds/tornados.
(Hope you’re feeling better!)
Add to your collection of knowledge-Oklahoma, Mondays at 10am. Yesterday even got me with a new one sounding like a European police siren. A friend tells me she can’t remember what it’s for either but just take cover. ha!
Oh, the air-raid sirens. Also known in some quarters as the “CRAP! Did I leave my car parked in the street-cleaning first-Tuesday-of-the month no parking zone?!” alarm.
Don’t feel bad. Every first Tuesday of the month I’m like “what the .. oh” anyways. Of course, I could just be slow!
In the tiny little town where I grew up, the siren blasted every day at noon AND whenever there was a fire since the fire department was all volunteer and I think this was to let them know they had better get to the station!
How disorienting! The city were I work has a huge petrochemical industry and they have monthly “tests” of the shelter-in-place sirens. Freaked me out the first time. I dont even hear it now.
I had no idea they had such a thing…and in a city that huge?!? We used to have one, which we affectionately called “Ferdinand”, it was used to call out volunteer Fire & Rescue members. He sounded much like a bellowing cow! Thank goodness he was put to rest long ago!
I’m so sorry that happened to you!
My smaller town does the same thing, I think on the first Tuesday (there aren’t any siren horns near me, and I was in the gym at 10:00 this morning). Our city administration building is also a fallout shelter (clearly marked). Paranoia dies hard in the Midwest, it seems.
They have one in San Francisco on Tuesdays, at the much more civilized hour of noon. A recording always follows the siren “This is a test…” etc. It confused me at first in a kind of “Who’s that? Voice from God.” kind of way. Take care.
Funny…I was just in a meeting in the South Loop where the folks I was with forgot about the siren and practically leaped under the table when it started. I grew up in a small town with a regular Tuesday morning sirend drill so I barely even notice it. Looking forward to the signing in Oakbrook tonight!
they do that in berkeley too! my first month here, as a freshman, not having been warned, i was on campus and practically flattened myself against the library…no one else flinched, so i felt pretty dumb.
Thanks for the warning……ours will go off at 1pm today! My daughter and I will be in Chicago as of Thursday evening so I guess we missed that excitement!
Looking forward to hearing you in St. Paul this wednesday!
I never thought about the people who don’t live here and what they must think of that siren. I think it would scare me too. Of course, now that I think about it, I don’t even really notice it much anymore, due to the testing. So, in case of real emergency I think I am screwed.
Can’t wait to see you tonight in Oak Brook!
Stephanie:
It’s not you they’re after. Conrad Black is the one they’re trying to warn Chicagoans(sp) to steer clear of.
My new YH book arrived this morning so there go my plans for the rest of the week.
Have a safe trip.
You were in OKC on a Tuesday. I know because of the election=no liquor laws. BUT, if you had still been here on Wednesday, at 12:00noon, you could have heard the Oklahoma Sirens – its our REAL state song. Every Wednesday at noon unless the weather could cause someone to mistake it as real (already raining/thunderstorms). My kids know that when the sirens go of – its lunch time. At least ONE day per week they KNOW.
Aargh! That’s awful. Reminds me of the time we visited my great aunt and uncle on Cape Cod. I was in the bathroom and the noon siren went off. It was actually in their yard. Being in the bathroom was a lucky coincidence, let me tell you. I hope you got to finish your nap after that. Naps are good for knitters and other critters. Could you squeeze Bangor, Maine into your trip? We won’t blow sirens at you. I promise.
Lill
We have the same thing where I live (Uppsala, Sweden) and they test them regularly. You’re supposed to close all windows and listen to the radio for information when the sirens go off. When it happened for real in my town (some idiot had cut the entire phone system) I remember hearing the sirens, not really thinking much about it and just getting really irritated that my phone didn’t work. So perhaps all the testing isn’t that good.
they did that in WI where I grew up on the first Wednesday of the month. I *think* they might do it on the first Wed in MN too. (ah, just looked, someone already mentioned that we DO do that here). At least you’re prepared this time around. 😉
On the other hand, we’re supposed to be getting cold & snow today and maybe tomorrow – you’ll have a reason to wear plenty of handknits. =]
Poor Harlot! Did your beautiful curly hair stand on end as well? In downtown Columbus, Ohio, its every Wednesday at NOOOOOOOOOON!!
On another note, I had to attend a surprise birthday party on Saturday. I was so sorry to miss you in Lyndhurst. My sister lives close to there, but is a non-knitter. I tried to get her to go anyway. Maybe next time.
Ah, reminders of Minnesota. We lived outside Minneapolis when I was in middle school and I can clearly remember them testing the tornado warning sirens once a month. It must have been at lunch time because we were always on the playground when they went off. Believe you me, you do not want to hear one in the middle of the night!
Don’t feel bad, you are not alone. When I moved to Minnesota, the first time I ever heard the air siren, I had the worst panic attack ever. I didn’t help that it was not too long after the Sept.11 tragedy. I was a wreck.
We used to live less than a block from a siren. Fortunately, it never went off for a real weather emergency while we lived there, but it did malfunction once. For two days in a row, we were woken up at 1 am by the loudest noise (the siren going off) I have ever heard in my life. The first day, I was absolutely terrified – the weather was totally clear, all I could think was there was some horrible non-weather emergency. The second day (after we knew it was a malfunction) I was seriously ticked off. Regardless, it was nice to know we’d never miss the siren if there was severe weather 🙂
ps I’m sure the siren wasn’t actually directed at you – this wasn’t some kind of weird “muggles get back at the knitters” thing, was it?
I come from Dryden, a little NW Ontario town based around a paper mill. We also have a siren that is tested the first Friday of the month at 5PM. Freaked my fiance out really badly the first time he heard it! It is designed for mill fires and chemical spills, for anyone who lives nearby. A few summers ago we had a chlorine gas leak and had to immediately leave and go stay out at camp (20 minutes away) for the night!
Oh No! We lived about a block away from the tornado siren for a year in our last apartment. Every month when they tested, our now-four-year-old would run around in circles screaming in terror if Mama lost track of the day and left the windows open! So my little guy definitely feels your pain!!
Living in Arkansas, those sirens are a part of my weekly life. Though I’ve often wondered what would happen should we have an actual tornado at 12:00pm Wednesday afternoon… I assume there’s a backup plan. ^_~
Thanks for making me laugh while at school:) So sorry for your nap interruption, at least it is not planes flying over head every 10 mins. (Much like it is when I am trying to take a nap.)
Bwahhahahahah!!!!!
Sorry, I can’t help it. I think my laughing scared the cat…
I’ll be seeing you tomorrow night in MinneSNOWta! We’ll have plenty of the white stuff for you, with any luck!
Happy trails!
Yikes, that would be frightful to wake up to. Hope the rest of your tour goes well. I can’t wait to see you in Denver on Thursday!
I had to laugh when I read this, my city does it too, every Wednesday at 10:00am, rain or shine.
Wouldn’t you know, I was just outside, drinking my coffee and making faces over that siren (it makes my dog howl).
I’ll be there tonight!
Melanie – I well remember April 2-3, 1974. My older daughter was almost 2 (BD 5/24) & we had had several days of beautiful late spring – almost summer weather. Then boom – rapid temperature drop & a big snowstorm. On one roll of film, we had photos of her wearing one of those little “bubble” suits with bare legs & arms riding her Little Wheel & later photos of her in her furry snowsuit waist deep in snow cavorting in the back yard – all taken in the same week! And, Stephanie, Beware – the weather forecast is similar now. I believe the high will be in the 60’s today & then tonight drop into the 30’s with a possibility of snow some time in the 2nd half of the week (altho not likely 11-14″). Just a typical Chicago spring!
Poor Stephanie,
I was in the middle of my cello lesson this morning and I heard it go off. Kinda fun thinking that all across the city natives and visitors alike sit up and think “what the hell?” all at the same time…
See you tonight!
%&^ *&^%$#, the joys of travel. We have a city wide siren in London, Ontario that has been tested once in my lifetime (the noise was horrendous, let us know when your heart beat is back to normal) but they warned everybody about it for weeks before they did it, I was in high school, 20 yrs later now I wonder if it’s time to test it again. You’d think your hotel might have warned you.
That is really and truly dreadful!!! Definitely something that they should of let you know about when checking in.
Funny though, now that it’s over. Kinda like the burning sawdust, you can’t make this stuff up.
Oh no, what a rude awakening. When I was a kid growing up in a small rural Alberta town, the siren went off every night at 10:00 pm to make sure we were safe in our beds. Did you grab your knitting and your bag in case you had to flee? That would have been me for sure!!
Oh dear! I grew up in Illinois and am used to the testing of the tornado sirens. (Oddly one finds it comforting to know they work.) Then I moved to Pittsburgh, where they don’t do such things, and absolutely freaked out one day when I heard sirens. Like all good citizens who grow up in the Land of Oz (i.e., tornado zones), I immediately looked up at the sky and considered where to seek shelter. Needless to say, I knew very well that I was not looking at a tornado sky, but I was still freaked out, so I asked a passerby. She informed me that the siren indicates the end of shift at a local factory! Sheesh! My sympathies for your disturbed nap!
Awww, it my town, they test on the first Saturday of the month at 11:00 am. My MIL (also not aware of the alert testing) just about fell off her stool when she was here. I told her that if a tornado ever did hit the town at 11:00 am on the first Saturday of the month, everybody would die because we wouldn’t believe we were in danger.
Yes, here in my part of Kansas, they test the tornado sirens (which sound like air raid sirens) every monday at noon. (Unless the weather is bad. Wouldn’t want to confuse people.) Yesterday, they went off at 11:48 and then again at noon. Weird.
The siren for my little town is in my next door neighbors’ back yard. VERY LOUD!
Oh poor Stephanie!!
I had a similar experience in college. I was living off campus in a house nearby. It was my birthday, at 6am, sleeping away peacefully, when all of a sudden a huge sonic boom literally threw me out of bed. Well, it might have been sonic boom assisted jumping out of bed….all I know is that I was on the floor a second after I woke up. Keeping in mind the college campus was next door to a NUCLEAR CAPABLE airforce base, and this being during the administration of Ronnie Ray-Gun, is peeked out the window facing the base, looking for a telltail mushroom cloud, and thinking that I was going to die in a nuclear holocaust on my birthday……nope…..Still not sure I was about to die, I ran downstairs to the phone to call the college’s student-manned security, to see if the noise was my imagination, thinking no one I knew would be working at 6am (Just in case I was a total space case and the noise had been my imagination). When Security answered the phone, I asked in a shakey voice if anyone had heard a sonic boom. The answer on the other end…….”Yes, Alyson, it was a sonic boom, everything is fine.” It was my friend Chris!!!
NJ (at least around where I lived) used sirens like that when they sent out fire trucks. Now I grew up in California where sirens did not go off, so the first time I heard that, I was pretty darned sure there was an air raid and the Russians were coming and I was going to die. Now, living near Chicago I only hear them for tornadoes, and know that there is a great likelyhood that I will die due to that.
that happened to me this past summer when we got a “really great deal” on a rental for one week on the very peaceful sandbar called Fire Island off the coast of Long Island (no cars allowed at all). The landlord “forgot” to tell me that the house was located DIRECTLY UNDER THE FIRE SIREN which WENT OFF TWICE A DAY FOR THIRTY SECONDS AT A TIME.
Needless to say, I totally understand your adrenalin rush.
We don’t have that in Montréal. In fact, I think we don’t test for readiness for anything. I swear, if we were under any threat around here, instead of hiding under the desks, you’d see people in the streets pumping their fists at the sky, shouting, “Ayoille, let’s go, tabarnak…”
Oh, you poor dear! And this after needing to crawl out of a hotel on a previous day at 3:30 am. My heart goes out to you.
I’m a city girl and most noises don’t even register any more. Also, I’m one of those extremely sound sleepers. I have slept through an earthquake, my building being on fire (twice), police and neighbors banging on my door to tell me to evacuate, a friend coming over and putting on the stereo, and all the fire trucks blaring at all hours from the fire station down the street.
I may not get a lot of sleep, but what I get is quality! 🙂
Barbara L in MA
I’ve lived in this city (Columbus, Ohio. By the way WHY DON’T YOU COME HERE???) for nearly 8 years now and I STILL jump out of my skin every Wednesday at noon when they test the air siren.
Ah, yeah. We’re big on our siren testing. Like Daniele, I live near Columbus, Ohio, and they test them every Wednesday at noon, year round. If there is ever any sort of emergency on a Wednesday at noon, Franklin County is completely doomed, because everyone will just glance up and go, “huh, must be noon”, and go back to what they were doing.
Ours have a voice, though, that says “This is a test” or something like that (I can hear that it’s a voice and that there’s words, but I can’t actually make them out). I don’t recall hearing the voice during the actual tornado warnings last summer (three within three weeks, I think), so I guess if you don’t hear the voice, you should duck and cover.
Sorry for the rude welcome. As so many others have said, we’re just used to the siren and forget to warn visiting knitting goddesses. Lucky for you you’re in the City of Big Shoulders, so tears don’t last long here. I hope to come see you tonight — depends on if I get my article finished!!! In any case, have fun and please enjoy the rest of your stay!!!
Ah, the sirens. As far as I know, you’ll be safe from sirens in Denver. In my small town north of Denver, it’s every Monday at 10 a.m., followed by “This was a test. This was only a test of the emergency warning system.”
Baby, I am SO sorry. The siren didn’t mean to be scary….
I wonder if all the knitters got together and knit a huge giant muffler (aka scarf) to tie around the siren, if that would help muffle the sound for those not used to it?
I wonder if all the knitters got together and knit a huge giant muffler (aka scarf) to tie around the siren, if that would help muffle the sound for those not used to it?
Stephanie, at least with all your troubles in Michigan you missed the tornado sirens. They go off at 1PM on the first Saturday of the month. I’m so glad you made it to Ann Arbor, and can’t wait to see how you describe it. Dan and I had a wonderful time.
Mary (aka Amanda)
Someone deserves a pointy stick in the arse for that wakeup call! Good news – I got your book yesterday (no need to answer my question re: who do I have to sleep with to get the book). Read it cover to cover in less than 2 hours. Love, love, love it! A definite re-read and a keeper for my library.
In the early 1950s my parents lived in Munich, or rather in what was left of it after the war – most of it (including the opera house where my father worked) was still a bombed-out ruin. Because my mother’s boss was running Radio Free Europe, he had a tiny house all to himself, an otherwise unheard-of luxury by post-war standards. So of course that’s where all the parties took place. Can you say “bathtub vodka”? In the living room of this house were two wall switches, one of which controlled the light. The other set off the air-raid siren for that whole quarter of the city. Trouble is, nobody knew which switch was which, so they couldn’t use either one – you had to stumble across the room in the dark to turn on the light by hand.
Well, one drunken New Year’s Eve (see above re bathtub vodka) my mother took it into her head that it would be a good idea to find out once and for all. She flipped a switch. Nothing happened… for about a minute. Then the house began to vibrate. Then the sound became audible. Then deafening, and by this time the house was seriously shaking (see above re size of house and scope of siren).
And they couldn’t switch it off. Some official or other had to be summoned to make it stop.
I’m not sure which I would least have wanted to be that night – the locals, their war memories still fresh, waking up to a repeat performance of that horrific signal; or the chagrined young idiots realizing what they’d unleashed.
Some New Year’s noisemaker.
Shy-kees! Thanks for the information… not that it’ll stop me from completely freaking out if I’m ever in Chicago on the first Tuesday of the month at 10AM.
My Kansas town just did their monthly testing of the sirens yesterday afternoon (during a conference call with someone in Seattle–that was an interesting one to try and explain). Sure sign that spring (and tornado season) has arrived.
When I lived in Sleepy Hollow, we were right next to the fire station which had a bellow like a thousand dying moose. At three am. And there was a code of three sets of blasts, that told the town which hydrant to go to (they are all numbered). What a nightmare.
Dude, how do we get the “All your yarn is belong to us” shirt? In NY you said you’d post a CaféPress link (I can’t find it on there).
Denver? No city-wide sirens. At least not that I’ve noticed.
Denver? On the edge of her collective seat waiting for Thursday evening Harlotry.
Denver? Will not have enough chairs. We tried and tried to tell them.
Two days ’til Harlot Denver…
Omigosh, that did make me laugh! I’m sorry, my dear yarn harlot for your scare. I’ve always lived in tornado alley (Oklahoma and now Ohio), so it never occured to me that they weren’t everywhere (so provincial of me!) :o)
For reference, the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) do this at 1:00 PM on the first wednesday of the month. Just so you’re not freaked out tomorrow, too.
I remember when I heard my first siren from the Indian Point Nuclear Facility in Westchester County, NY. I thought I was in the War of The Worlds. I had just moved to that area and I had no idea they did this type of testing. Everybody was coming out of the stores and looking at the skies. It seemed to go on for hours. It was really freaky. Glad you survived Chicago’s air raid siren.
That’s pretty damn funny! So sorry you got so freaked out, but still, it is funny.
Try being 8 years old taking an SAT type test for admisson to a private school your parents want you to attend. All is silent and WHAM the aliens are landing on the lawn outside the window. The kids from the area ignored it. I hadn’t ever heard them and lost 5 minutes of that timed test finding out what it was. Didn’t help that the “creature feature” the night before was “The Day The Earth Stood Still” and the week before that was “War Of The Worlds”. Now that sound always makes me think of space ships landing. I’ll be seeing you tomorrow in St.Paul and again next week at Camp Cockamamie. Happy Knitting. Alice
OH DEAR!! poor you!! In Edinburgh they have the 1pm gun that they set off daily and when your in the park its easy to spot the non locals as they leap out their skin in complete terrified shock.
PS I was in Omaha for that test in the 60’s and SAC was just 15 miles south. Looking Glass with its sonic booms regularly past over my house.
(((HUGS))) I’m so sorry that happened to you! You are in the midwest where tornadoes do happen, though. Here in Toledo the sirens go off the first Friday of the month at noon. Year ’round. Just sayin’. You know… in case you ever come visit.
I hope nothing bad ever happens in Chicago on the first Tuesday of a month at 10am, because how will anyone know?
Oh I feel for you. If you’re ever in my neck of the woods our sirens go off every wed at noon. Plus they play reveille at 7:30 am, the star spangled banner at 5 pm and taps at 10 pm….yup I’m on a Air Force Base. 🙂
Argh, too funny! I vividly remember my first experience with that siren, having just moved to Chicago from quiet Germany… My husband almost wet himself, so I guess my reaction was priceless.
Every first Monday at 1 here in Lawrence, KS, though they don’t test them if the weather is bad so as not to scare folks. Funny thing is, last year when we had a microburst (scary mini tornado thing) the sirens didn’t go off ’til it was over. Ha hah.
((Hugs))
I would have cried, too.
Okay, I live in Sacramento, where idiots like me stand outside our classrooms and look at tornadoes going “Wow…that’s pretty freakin’ scary!” If I’d heard something like that in a strange city while I was trying to sleep, I would have wet myself first, THEN burst into tears–you did pretty welll, comparitivley.
Aww, that sucks! I’m a student at the University of Texas at Austin, and the JUST installed a siren system last month. They test it on the first Wednesday of each month, so I have something to look forward to tomorrow. I find hearing a loud voice booming across campus telling me that it is only a test to be extremely hilarious. I wish they could have picked a better siren…ours sounds so lame! You can check it on the university website at: http://www.utexas.edu/emergency/sirens/index.php and click on the link to the audio clip. Seriously, they built this thing up for weeks and sent us like 50 e-mails a day. I think they could have done better than a siren with one short crescendo, and then one really, really, really long decrescendo. Whatever, man.
I’m sure someone beat me too it – but you can never be too careful.
Tomorrow at 1:00 they’ll be doing that in Minnesota. No need to worry or plan an escape. Even if there was a storm that’s our signal to go stand outside and see if we can spot an actual tornado. We never go to the basement to hide, what would be the fun in that.
We grew up with an air raid siren that went off once a month near our house in Sacramento too. I was used to it. The Kansas town I went to college in set the siren off every day at noon. Once during tornado season they tested it at a random time, and my roommate and I panicked and grabbed the cat and tried to run for shelter.
I attended college in Williamsburg, VA, just up the road from the quaint little town of Surry, where there happens to be a nuclear power plant. I was a transfer student, so I lived off-campus, and my roommate actually worked at the power plant & wasn’t a student. Anyway, I’m sitting in the apartment alone one morning when I hear these sirens. I have no idea what they are, but it for damn sure seems like something Really Big & Bad, where you should either get out of town now or kiss your butt goodbye. Except…I don’t have a car, and being relatively new in town, don’t know anyone there yet. I turned on the TV, figuring if it were important, there’d be some sort of information about it. Except there isn’t, all I see is game shows…which only made my frightened mind race with other possibilities, like how there’s been some accident at Surry, which killed all the personnel at the TV station, so they CAN’T break in with the breaking news story, the programming just continues on its own, and OMG OMG I’m going to die all alone in this stupid apartment.
Finally about half an hour later, there’s a crawl along the bottom of the screen, that viewers should be aware that the Surry power plant was testing its alarms today at 11 a.m. (again, I’m seeing this message at something like 11:30, so I’ve had half an hour to panic and freak out on my own, thankyouverymuch), and that it was just a test, no one should be concerned.
Dude, just typing this out my heart started pounding again, and it happened in fall of ’87. GAH.
JeAYsus. Sheesh. That must have had you shaking for hours.
Like many people who’ve commented, I grew up in a small town that had a siren for the volunteer fire department. I had a boyfriend who was a fireman and so he leapt out of bed and out of the house when that sucker went off. Scared the heck out of me each time.
Ohmy gosh, Stephanie. That is terrifying. I am so sorry you had to go through that . We have the F16 fighter jets go over our house regularly, and that is scary enough. Vermont does not have a siren in preparedness mode, just in case you ever want to come and visit us here. We have three good yarn stores in the Burlington area. What does it take to sponsor you to come for a talk? I would be willing to do the leg work. Love you, your fellow IBCLC…and knitter. Kathleen
holy crap! i’ve lived in chicago my entire life and didn’t even know that. crazy.
So sorry for the scare, espcially during a badly needed nap!
Strangely enough, the prison in DC does this as well, every Saturday at noon. Apparently this is in response to an escape by inmates where the siren didn’t work! Now they make sure it works every Saturday, making it the perfect time for an escape.
Ours is the first Wednesday of the month at 1:30. GOod thing your post reminded me, since it always catches me off guard. If you’re in the Twin Cities at that time tomorrow, consider yourself warned!
I’m so excited for tomorrow!
Oh, yea, and there just is nothing more frightening than driving to work at 5:30 AM, stuck (as in STUCK) in traffic during a thunderstorm and the tornado sirens go off. (Where to look first? Do I get out of the car? Why me, what did I do?) Thank God Scotland has such moderate weather…
Holy crap. With others, I say, why the hell don’t hotels *tell* guests things like this? As someone mentioned, on our Oregon coast we have tsunami sirens – but there are *signs* all over the streets warning you! Plus the info’s stated very obviously in the local phone books, should you chance to be looking in them. Hawaii too – phone books, lots of the tourist brochures, and in those books hotels have with their room service menus and amenities.
A friend and I got caught out in a hotel in Vancouver BC once, though it wasn’t nearly so terrifying. The fire alarm started going off around 2 a.m., but only in 2-second bursts. We thought it was a malfunction; otherwise, why would it be stopping and starting? It did that for about 20 minutes, and *then* went into a steady wail, at which point pretty much everyone on our floor had woken up and decided we’d better find out what the hell was going on. (None of us on that floor were Canadians, as it happened.) By the time we were all straggling out of our rooms, it stopped, and hotel employees hit our floor to tell us it’d been real, but only for 2 idiots who’d been smoking in the emergency stairwell. And yeah, the stop-start thing was how the sirens were *supposed* to work – which they didn’t happen to mention anywhere, like on the standard fire escape route plaque on the room door. Which info would’ve been kinda nice for us furriners to have handy, y’know?
Grief. Sending virtual Xanax and sympathies!
Ah, yes, Chicago can be disconcerting (esp. for a small-town girl like me!).
We have a siren here in Murfreesboro, TN as well. We use it for tornadoes.
I had never heard of such things growing up in VT, but the first night, alone, at college in Western NY (go AU!) the siren went off at some ridiculous hour, like 3am. I freaked out, got out of bed, grabbed my Birks and a toothbrush, and filed out into the hallway to meet up with my fellow evacuees. I was the only one awake. It was like a Stephen King movie. So, I went back to bed and went back to sleep figuring that in the morning I’d be dead or OK. I was fine.
PS, they test the siren in Alfred every day at noon, and it sits directly across from a window in the English building. I was an English major. I suppose it was better us than the music dept.
I remember my first encounter with that Chicago siren… Having just moved there from quiet Germany my reaction must have been priceless as my husband almost wet himself.
Oh, yea, and there just is nothing more frightening than driving to work at 5:30 AM, stuck (as in STUCK) in traffic during a thunderstorm and the tornado sirens go off. (Where to look first? Do I get out of the car? Why me, what did I do?) Thank God Scotland has such moderate weather…
Oh, and sorry if this entry shows up more than once, I am fighting with my internet…
Everyone has already warned you about the Minnesota sirens tomorrow, but you should also know that the weather will be horrific! At least 20 degrees below normal with a chance of snow. Hopefully you have layers of wool to keep you warm. I am assuming the Yarnery is your “hat lady” for St. Paul, but if not I would gladly serve in that capacity. See you – with the hundreds of knitters that will be filling the auditorium – in St. Paul tomorrow night!
My father’s house in the booming metropolis of Fowlerville, Michigan (where there are now 3, yes 3, traffic lights!) is very close to fire house. The fire alarm goes off twice a day at noon and 10pm. The 10pm siren is a “curfew” for everyone under 16. However, the noon siren is to let the farmers know that it is lunch time and they need to come in from the fields. Oh the joys of small town living!
OH yeah we have those here. I heard it this morning. I had no idea that it was the first Tuesday of the month. Just know it happens every on ce in a while. Hope your over it by ttonight. Things are much calmer in Oak Brook than the city tho!
living in the midwest yer whole life, you end up not even noticing it, nor thinking its scaring the be-jesus of out non-natives.
i NEED to hear the Chicago to Detroit to chicago to Detroit story. as one of the many in Ann Arbor who were constantly asking, “but WHERE is she?” i gotta hear it from you.
Welcome back to Chicago, Stephanie! 😮 Did you happen to catch last night’s thunderstorms? I believe I shed a couple of hot, frightened tears about being killed in Chicago during those storms – and I live here! 🙂
Try working in the Sears Tower and have that thing go off the week after 9/11. It wasn’t very pretty.
Thank God my DH and I live in upstate NY now! No one wants to bomb the dairy cows!
I’m sorry on behalf of my goofy city . . .
Every time it goes off, I still have to do a mental check if it is Tuesday, early in the month, and 10 am — especially this time of year when we had tornado warnings this last week.
I look forward to seeing you tonight 🙂
They do that here in St. Louis, apparently on the first Monday of the month at 11am. In addition, in downtown, it seems to be accompanied by a big brotheresque voice saying something… Maybe saying it’s a test, but it sounded more like an ominous male version of Charlie Brown’s teacher yesterday as we left the building.
I take it you don’t get tornadoes in Toronto, then…
I grew up on a farm in tornadoville in the middle of Missouri–too far away from town to hear the sirens–so I still got a bit panicky when I heard them if I happened to be in town on a testing day, even if it was in the middle of the winter :p
Sirens are the first Monday of the month here in southwestern Wisconsin during tornado season, which it is now…and yes, they’re just part of the audible landscape once you’ve lived here; you look up and think, oh yeah, it’s Monday at 11:00. But I had a similar experience to yours when, as a student in Minneapolis, I was awakened by loud booms, the apartment building shaking, and lurid red light flashes. This was during a time of Cold War tension and I was sure we were being bombed; I had incorporated all this into my dream before I awoke, then thought I was waking up to the dream being real! Turns out a shopping center a mile away with a grand opening had set off fireworks over the river…
Funny now (kind of), but I still remember the pounding heart and adrenaline jag.
PS: There had better not be tornados OR thundersnow because I am driving up along the Mississippi to see you tomorrow!!
HA! (sorry) Been there and done that. Being from Pennsylvania, where tornadoes are generally rare, my move to Wisconsin had some surprises, like.the.air.sirens 😉 After living there for nearly a decade, I still got freaked by the WEEKLY tests. I’d hear it go off, and quickly try to remember the day of the week to determine if it were a test or the real thing 😉
So sorry the siren startled you. I look at my watch and think “Tuesday”. I never thought how scary it is to a visitor. I grew up with “Air Raid” drills in the 50s. All good little children hid under their desks and covered their heads. I even had a friend with a bomb shelter in his basement!
Just in case you were thinking about a nice afternoon nap tomorrow:
WARNING: Sirens in the Twin Cities go off at 1pm on the first Wednesday of every month (that would be tomorrow). Don’t be fooled, we’re not more prepared for a disaster than anyone else, but they’d like us to think so (rather like airport/airplane security).
Sorry, you sound like you could really use one (a nap, not a disaster).
ROFLO…sorry to laugh, but we have one of those here as well (I live near Oak Ridge, TN…you know the “Secret City” where they shipped all of Khadiafi’s extra plutonium for safekeeping). I threw my back out jumping sideways the first time I heard it!
Just pet the nice lovely yarn and everything will be ok.
🙂
Growing up in Corner Brook, Newfoundland I got used to the whistle from the paper mill that sounds several times a day. In fact, it acted as my alarm clock for most of my elementary and high school years. It freaks visitors out though.
I’m swimming up from SPM Casts Off to sympathize with you over your rude awakening, hope you were able to get back to sleep- would’ve been over for me.
Can I just say how much I like Alice? You really did a great job- love the book. . .
Thanks you so much. I really needed to laugh today and your post made me spit water onto my computer.
PS In Cincinnati it is Friday at noon.
Well, Chicago didn’t used to do that for tornados, just nuclear attack. When I moved here and was looking for an apartment in Mpls, it was a rainy day. I was about to leave one place and the landlady looked at me quizzically and said, “aren’t you going to stay for a few minutes?” I knew they were nice here, but??? I had heard a siren and thought Sunday was a strange time to practice air raid drills. She saw my bafflement and explained that it meant there was a tornado in the area. I actually was a few blocks from where it touched down.
Ah, the wonders of travel and learning the customs of the country! Hopefully the rest of the discoveries are peaceful.
Gerrie in MN
LOL! I’m sorry it scared you …
It was actually the first siren test of the year today. When it went off, both myself and the children momentarily got a strange look on our face and glanced out the window. Then I realized Tues. at 10 is the test!
Hope you got to get some more sleep … my 7 year old and I will be there tonight to say hi! =)
LOL! I’m sorry it scared you …
It was actually the first siren test of the year today. When it went off, both myself and the children momentarily got a strange look on our face and glanced out the window. Then I realized Tues. at 10 is the test!
Hope you got to get some more sleep … my 7 year old and I will be there tonight to say hi! =)
My mother found this out at our new house, on a rainy, cloudy, overcast day. She herded all the kids into the crawl space, but she didn’t want to scare them, so she told them that if they cleaned up the crawl space, we’d take them to Chucky Cheeses for dinner. She finally let them out when it stopped raining about 3 hours later.
We had the cleanest crawl space in town.
Stephanie,
I remember when I was younger we used to have those tests quite frequently in Germany. (I don’t know if they still do them now.) Even when it was announced and I KNEW it was JUST A TEST, I was scared out of my wits and expected the world to end right then and there. The sound of those sirens give me the creeps even today.
Oh no. And to interupt a much needed nap. So sorry. It’s tornado season and they test them. In Ohio they test every Weds at noon all year long. I hate to say it but you get used to them. (I actually can sleep through them which really defeats the purpose.)
On a better note the new book arrived from Amazon yesterday.
Look out Stephanie! The Twin Cities, to which you are coming Wednesday, April 4th, runs it’s emergency sirens the first WEDNESDAY of each month. So you get to hear sirens two days in a row! Can’t wait to see you.
This is what comes of volunteering to be a universal shit magnet for someone else last summer. Clearly, the universe had so much fun playing with you last year it just had to do it some more.
My initial though was “holy Moses, what the hell?” but then as I sat and read entries, I realized that back in my hometown on L.I. there is a “twelve o’clock whistle” (our name for it) every single day. It really does become part of the background.
I LOVED seeing you this morning on ABC7 morning news. You were GREAT. You must have had to get up awfully early! I complain about my baby-induced sleep deprivation, but at least I was still horizontal til 6. Sorry your nap was interrupted; I know how important they are! When I had my first baby, where we lived the siren pole was across the street. I decided that if it ever woke my daughter (not a good sleeper) up, I’d take my postpartum anger and an axe and go chop it down!
Oh, you poor thing! I grew up in Chicago and the air raid siren used to be every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. After I saw the movie “The Time Machine” I about had a heart attack because I finally knew that the sirens meant the Morlocks were coming for me (I was maybe 9 or 10). I hope the rest of your visit went better.
Well, that’s a fine welcome to Chicago! You might want to check “siren alerts” out from here on out. Our wee wittle city in Ohio recently adopted a siren alert system also. It sounds like air raids. Not only, we are told, do they use it for imminent danger – weather or otherwise, but they do use it like an Amber Alert type thing, which is good. We just had monthly “practice run” not long ago. Sadly it was not on the correct day/time. So, if I were you.. buy yourself some ear plugs 🙂
Oh! And bookbookbookbook came yesterday! Yay!
So what do you do in Toronto to warn people about tornadoes? Or air raids? I never realized that the sirens would freak people out – that’s useful to know!
I used to live near a fire station (which had a tornado siren right outside) and a dog groomer/animal shelter. It was always fun when the sirens went off, because all the beagles would howl along with them, having the time of their lives.
Here in Lafayette, IN, we test them at 11:00 AM Saturday morning – EXCEPT when Purdue has a home football game. I guess that’s a nice courtesy for the out-of-town visitors AND the pre-game drunks.
They do that here in Alabama too, except on Wednesdays. Where our office is, they actually have a voice, a VERY VERY loud voice, that tells you to take shelter. You can’t tell what direction it’s coming from. It’s kind of the voice of God telling you to take shelter now. 🙂
In Vancouver, we have the 9 o’clock gun. It is a cannon near or in Stanley Park which goes off every evening. To me it is aways a surprise when I do hear it.
Oops! Sorry about that! I don’t even notice them any more — just like I don’t notice train noise of any kind after living a block away from the CNW tracks for 25 years. 😉
Our local friendly neighbourhood nuclear power plant does that too, first Monday, 2pm. Scared the carp out of me the first time, just after we moved here and my husband was safely off at his new job. Put the severe willies up the next couple of times too.
I was just finally (after nine years) moved to look online and check that it really WAS the nuclear power plant’s siren and yup, I had assumed correctly.
PS I used to live in Edinburgh, where they fire off a ruddy great canon from the castle ramparts at 1 PM every day.
After a few years in the city it gets pretty amusing to watch the tourists jumping out of their skins on the main shopping thoroughfare…
I can’t belive this gun, siren, voice from god thing.
In Toronto we live in blissful silence. If something bad happens we listen to the radio,( or the wicked T.V.)
I’m back from the sun and sea.(rip tides are scary)
Back to family termoil (sp?). Unlike your traveling ones, talk soon.Luv Denny
Our “fire siren” used to go off at noon and 1pm every weekday. Then they stopped doing that when the firemen all got pagers. Now that the pagers have “acted up” a few times, they test the siren periodically.
One time, in the dead of winter, the fire siren went off at about 3 AM, and couldn’t be shut off for about 15 minutes. Of course, this was the night after one of those nuclear war movies in the eighties. I think it was frozen on.
Poor baby. Better end the day with some screech before that eye starts twitching again;) You’d think the hotel would post a warning or something.
Sorry that was your “intro” to Chicago this morning. As others have mentioned, you do get used to them & most months I don’t even notice the test. 🙂 Looking forward to the event this evening!
I grew up in a city that tested the siren every week (Tuesday at noon) after it failed to work when a tornado hit town. If you don’t know it’s coming (the siren, or a tornado for that matter), it can be pretty terrifying. I hope you can forgive Chicago; it’s a great city.
Oh, sorry about the siren thing. If it makes you feel any better, I believe it is a state-wide law, since it happened every month of my life when I was growing up in Central Illinois.
I hope you get some rest!
I just got your latest book from my Knitty secret pal — I think she picked it up in NYC on March 22nd. I got it and was super excited — I love your writing (both books and blog) and then saw that it was AUTOGRAPHED! 🙂 I’m hoping to meet you in person someday — you’ve got a great sense of self-deprecating humor, and your little tutorial on how to fix a miss-crossed cable has been invaluable. Keep up the good work!
Oops!
T minus 2 days till Denver. . . Anxiously awaiting your arrival.
Now let’s just suppose someone had a little something for you. How does one go about getting that little something to you?
Yikes. I’ve visited Chicago a number of times, but apparently I’ve never been there on a Tuesday morning. Sorry about that — up until now it sounded like you were having a blast, and not the siren kind.
Denny – the siren is to let you know that a tornado is coming BEFORE it gets to your house. Just a few minutes warning can mean the difference between someone getting to safe shelter in the basement & being killed by the storm. The Chicago suburban area stretches about 85-90 miles north to south from the Illinois Wisconsin state line to the far south suburbs & the furthest west edge of suburbia is about 50-55 miles from Lake Michigan. It is not uncommon for different parts of the metro area to have different weather, sometimes drastically different. And tornadoes can arrive seemingly out of nowhere very quickly (think of the beginning of The Wizard of Oz). So the sirens really are the only practical way to warn people. I don’t think you have tornadoes in Toronto, do you? If you did, after the first one killed 40 or 50 people, you’d probably be willing to have sirens too.
Really, you would think they would mention that when you deplane, or register at the hotel. Gah!
That’s funny – I lived in Chicago for 12 years and never noticed it!
Sorry about that Stephanie. Hopefully you were not out when the coyote decided to have a sub at guizzno’s. That actually happened in downtown Chicago this afternoon. Wish I could make it to Oakbrook tonight.
Thanks – that was very funny. I can’t get my husband out of bed when our sirens go off because there is an actual real tornado.
OH! I’m so sorry to hear you were scared.
I have two fun siren stories-
In college my roommate was home alone during a tornado watch (I was stuck in traffic on a field trip bus- terrifying, but that’s another story). We lived on the 2nd story, so she called her mom to ask her what to do. Her mom said “look out and see if your neighbors lights are on. If they are, go down there when the sirens go off.” They were on so she had a plan. A very small tornado did actually touch down, thankfully not by us, but when she told me she never heard the sirens, I had to laugh. The town we lived in didn’t have them! Her hometown did…
The other story is of a coworker. A tornado touched down about 1/2 mile from her house, thankfully it was also small. She didn’t realize that there was a tornado until her mother called to check on her and the kids. “Of course were okay.” She didn’t realize the tornado sirens were for an actual tornado, as the warning was issued at about the same time as the monthly test. Even though the weather was bad it didn’t occur to her that the siren was real!
Minneapolis: 1st wednesday of the month at 1pm. I don’t know what time you get into town for your talk, but thought you deserved a head’s up!
I grew up just outside of Chicago and we also used to test them same time, same day. Got so used to it you hardly noticed it, but the poor animals at my vet clinic noticed (we were right under the siren).. Funny thing was that when we were under a tornado watch, I don’t remember them actually being used.. hmm.. weird… I’m in earthquake country now and kind of miss it.. now that I think about it…
Oh lord, I’m so sorry. That thing is really scary to wake up to. On the other hand, better they have some type of warning system than none at all — I guess.
Well, the nerve of them. Did they not know that after a gajillion hours of travel time – twice to Detroit in one day – the assistance of one amazing gentleman who whisked you off to see all us knitters at the Ann Arbor Library – and then hours of signing books for said knitters. Chicago should have delayed those sirens – especially THE SIREN was already there! Shame on you, Windy City!! The Harlot needed some sleep!!
Thanks for the great time you shared with all of us in Ann Arbor – it was well worth the wait! You set my mind to the wonders that knitters can do one stitch at a time – think world peace is ready for us???
I am loving the book and the journey!
In Wolfville and most small towns in Nova Scotia, that old air raid siren is used to call the volunteer firefighters. So we hear it several times a week. It’s not so bad from the house, but if you’re walking past the fire station when it goes off, look out!
Steph –
So sorry the warning sirens frightened you so badly!
I live in Oklahoma City, where the set the tornado sirens off every Saturday at noon. I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t really even pay attention to them anymore.
Have a safe tour.
In my small town.. we have one of those sirens that blasts from the town hall when they need the voluntter fire dept. to assemble. It used to blast for the ambulance crew too. 4 blasts.. followed by 4 more means a firecrew is on it’s way out. The town hall… is right next to my house. The horn.. is right next to my bedroom window.
((hugs)) because I know exactly what that is like!
Oh I’m sorry! I’ve grown up in the midwest but everytime I hear it I still look to the sky to make sure it’s “just” a test.
They do that in Hawaii too. Even though I’ve basically lived here all my life, it still manages to scare the crap out of me.
Isn’t Tuesday the day you sit and spin? That would calm your nerves. Chicago is a wonderful city to visit, especially this time of year. Can you sneak off to the aquarium?
The other evening DD and I were sipping Peet’s on a bench at the SF Ferry Building, laughing as I read your latest book aloud, and the Alameda ferry blew its airhorn. We’re so used to it we just kept reading and laughing, but nearly everyone else levitated for a moment.
The air raid siren in my hometown used to go off every day at noon. That sound still makes me hungry.
Having lived in earthquake country all my life, the idea of a warning when something freaky is about to happen sounds good. When I was small, the local television stations would run a brief alert at 10 pm (what was I doing up at 10?) – “It’s ten o’clock. Do you know where your children are?” I would always panic for a moment, thinking, “No! I don’t know where they are!” before I remembered I was nine and the alert didn’t apply to me.
We’ll do our best to schedule an earthquake if you come to Sacramento. Pleeeeeeease?
You poor dear! Wow, I’d have probably peed myself if a huge air siren went off without prior knowledge. You’d think it would be something that the hotel concierge would mention to guests checking in the night before each test…
Funny thing about that…
I am from a little town, we’re 3 doors from the fire dept and the air raid siren would go off every. single. day. at noon. the first time my fiance came to visit he heard it and looked at me, sitting there calmly and said “Uh, should we be taking cover or something?” because he had only ever had experience with the sirens during drills at the DOD schools he went to growing up.
I thought it was cute. But I’m mean like that.
Oh man. Every Wednesday at 1pm, and other than that only for tornados. That was my history with the air raid siren growing up.
And then we moved to semi-rural MD where they use them to call the volunteer fire department for emergencies. Remind me some day, when there has been drinking and I no longer care as much for my dignity, to tell you the story of the day I learned this Very Important Piece of Information.
Oh, dear. Our town has that, too, on the first Wednesday, at noon. The siren is right at our community pool and occasionally, I show up there to swim right at that time, just to get blasted. Oy.
I’m happy to collect hats for your Petaluma appearance, but am guessing you already have a willing Californian for that gig. If not, I’m your gal!
We have one of these sirens right next to our house. The first Saturday of the month at noon, our 5-year-old twin boys come running, from where ever they are, with their hands cupped over their ears, and total bewildered looks on their faces like they have never heard it before. Even our dog’s eyes pop out! It is an event to behold.
It is especially interesting when they’re outside. They just freeze in place, like they inately know that it’s the BIG ONE or something…it’s funny.
I do have to say, not so funny for those who are trying to squeeze in a nap!
Dear Stephanie,
I have just received a copy of “Knitting Rules”
as a gift, and love it as much as “Meditations”.
What is this about hats? Where are they going and who do we send them to? I am only a VERY novice knitter, but quite a veteran crocheter. I have been making hats for a Chemo Support Group for many years and I am sure they are sick of me by now.
I have a brass statue of a pelican in my office who now owns quite an assortment of knitted hats and scarves. I fear my knitting is not quite good enough for people, yet, but I keep trying.
Also,people in Florida love yarn, too!
Keep the yarn winding!
I see that many Minnesotans have already warned you about the 1pm blast on the first Wednesday of the month there. I live in Tokyo now, and they play a little tune over the public loudspeakers at 5pm each evening. It’s nice — unless you happen to be directly under one of the loudspeakers with a toddler.
I thought that was the funniest thing ever!!!! I think it’s the Canadian thing – no sirens and all. Wow… I was laughing here by myself visualizing everything… thinking that I would probably do the EXACT same thing. Thanks for the good belly laugh – those are always great 🙂
A note re Petaluma: I was told by phone you have to buy two books from their store to get two seating passes, and that they were almost out. But not quite. I was lucky to order in time. Got the books: no passes. Turns out their website directs you to order from a different store from the one doing the signing, and that other one didn’t know that this was a “pass event.” I’ve got my passes on the way now, and one more muggle is now informed that there are going to be (no, really, honest, trust me, lady!) a lot of knitters showing up. Really, there are. (Ya think?!)
Holy crap! Well that about sums it up…and may be related to what I might have done in my pants if I was there.
Wow. We have one around here, but it’s not nearly as loud, and it’s for the volunteer firefighters. The first time I heard it, I was spending the weekend at my new boyfriend’s (now my hubby’s) house and had no idea what it was when it went off at 3 in the morning. Figured if there were bombs about to go off, someone would have come to get me. Now they go off all the time (you should have heard it after 9/11 around here – CONSTANT) and they’re still annoying, but liveable.
Oh, Steph, I’m sorry you were panicked. I grew up in the western Chicago ‘burbs (I worked at a now-defunct bookstore in Oak Brook, in fact) and now live in Kansas, so tornado sirens and I are old, good friends. When we moved for a while to western New York (Rochester), I was freaked by the fact that we _didn’t_ have sirens. I mean, what if there was a tornado during the night? How would I know?
Yeah, I know. Tornadoes? In Rochester?
Why doesn’t Toronto test their public warning system? You Canadians are usually so sensible about the public good!
Here in San Francisco the sirens are tested EVERY Tuesday at noon. It’s gotten so my response to hearing it is, oh lunchtime.
Every Friday at 11am in Indianapolis. I only panic when I hear it at other times, and I was fully expecting to hear it today.
Its a wonder someone doesn’t have a heart attack!!!!!!!! hate those things.
Its a wonder someone doesn’t have a heart attack!!!!!!!! hate those things.
Ah, the sounds of spring in the midwest! I grew up in Nebraska and Kansas, and those were the sounds of spring and summer! It is scary for a first timer, I always laugh when I get to witness that!!! 😀
Growing up in the late 70s and 80s, I remember that Springfield, Mass used to do that every Friday at noon. 12 o’clock whistle, my grandmother (KG!) would call it.
Dude, that is so funny, I work in Chicago, one block from a fire station, and I always have to remember NOT to make a phone call at 10 am on the first Tuesday of the month in the spring & summer. I sure heard it today as well, but it did not cause internal panic. Although I’m sure if I was in a foreign city, it would.
I’m sorry you had such a bad experience, to lighten your day I figured I would tell you that I happened to purchase your new book today.
In Kitchener, Onterio, Canada… I didn’t think the book was released in Canada yet. (Causing me to gasp, grab the book from the shelf and clutch it possessively. Also causing my fiance to look at me like I had grown a second head while I breathed “It’s not supposed to be released here yet!”)
I look forward to reading it!
Actually all of Illinois does that, so if you’re visiting anywhere else, you’ll be prepared! Have fun in Minneapolis tomorrow and say ‘hi’ to my friends!
“All your yarn is belong to us” ??????
Ha! I gotta get that! “All your parking spaces is belong to me!” was my #1 son’s senior quote in high school.
Here in Oklahoma City it goes off every Saturday at noon. For us college kids it usually means time to get up! 😉
The only siren we get here that’s not on emergency vehicles is closing time at the zoo. I think it’s supposed to stun the peacocks into shutting up for the night.
Where I grew up in Tennessee we have an “air raid” siren… so the first time I heard them test the tornado siren I though it was odd that they had air raids in Minnesota, too! I guess it’s all about your perspective of disaster.
I am so sorry! We live in tornado ally, and I haven’t once hear ours go off, ever in the year we have lived here, so if they ever go off, I will most likely do what you did and think the same thing, and I’m not even on a book tour.
Our siren is noon on Saturdays. I’ve twice lived in towns with volunteer fire departments, and those sirens go up and down and up and down to let the volunteers know to hurry over. That’s any day of the week, any time of day. Once I lived across the street from the fire department, too. Exciting.
I totally am bummed out, I tried to make Chicago happen (it’s a 4-hour drive which would make a very late return home). My friend couldn’t go at the last minute, and my car needs some work before I drive that far. I just couldn’t make it happen today.
At this point I’m thinking I’ll just make a trip to Lettuce Knit sometime this upcoming warm season, for a knit in. I think it’s Tuesday nights, right? Toronto is only 5 hours and I would adore an excuse to make a trip there for a few days.
For now I spent the afternoon reading your new book, in the hammock on my porch. I’m half through already… and the neighbors definitely are wondering why I’m laughing out loud all alone out there!
How wicked of them! Our poor harlot!
By the way, I’ve only JUST gotten the last post’s title (haha) and I’ve registered for my doula course! Wish me luck!
K
Try living two short blocks from a highway with a grade-level railroad crossing, three blocks from a tornado-warning siren, and halfway between an ambulance station and a major-trauma emergency room.
But in spite of all that major noise in my resume’, I still managed to bolt clean off my friend’s couch on North Clybourn Street in Chicago when that thing went off one January morning when I was visiting, even though the L train was passing right behind her house at that exact moment.
It was about 25 below outside, and being from Louisiana, I thought it was some sort of death-freeze alarm.
“All your yarn is belong to us” ??????
Ha! I gotta get that! “All your parking spaces is belong to me!” was my #1 son’s senior quote in high school.
Try living two short blocks from a highway with a grade-level railroad crossing, three blocks from a tornado-warning siren, and halfway between an ambulance station and a major-trauma emergency room.
But in spite of all that major noise in my resume’, I still managed to bolt clean off my friend’s couch on North Clybourn Street in Chicago when that thing went off one January morning when I was visiting, even though the L train was passing right behind her house at that exact moment.
It was about 25 below outside, and being from Louisiana, I thought it was some sort of death-freeze alarm.
Sirens- what sirens:) Having grown up in Chicago but lived in Manhattan eons ago I think those sirens pale in comparison to the east side subway:). I also have lived in many neighborhoods with cares driving by with those BOOMING stereos. So loud the ground vibrates. Since moving to bucolic Petaluma (from Modesto), I have almost forgotten that sound:)
OH SNAP! You mean I needed to order passes for the June 7th Book signing in Petaluma? I will be one of those lonely knitters with my little warm nose pressed on the outside.
The Aqus Cafe Knitting Circle (aka the knitting divas but I prefer callin’ us the yayayarndivas) will have to do a proper afternoon set to for you. We even have musical knitters who will play live music for you at the event.
Please tell your handler that you MUST have some afternoon time.
Whining not usually one of my tricks but I am ready to sink to any depths to get you to say yes.
I’m takin’ the whole day OFF (I do more public health than clinical pediatrics) fer sure:)
Toronto had air-raid sirens when I was a kid (60’s). They were totally random. If you were at school, you had to get under your desk. If you were outside, you had to get inside ASAP!
We heard one when we were living in Zhanjian, China, and I understand that feeling “Oh s***, not today! I don’t want to die in Zhanjian!”
Toronto had air-raid sirens when I was a kid (60’s). They were totally random. If you were at school, you had to get under your desk. If you were outside, you had to get inside ASAP!
We heard one when we were living in Zhanjian, China, and I understand that feeling “Oh s***, not today! I don’t want to die in Zhanjian!”
The town I live in does this every single day at noon. Every Single Day. It’s to make sure the volunteer firemen can hear the siren to respond to an emergency. You’d think cell phones would be the end of this, but we live in a little pocket of earth where they don’t work.
Anyway. First post here. Had to say hi after finishing my first sock 2 minutes ago.
That would NOT be funny. In Orting, they have the lahar warning system, and on the coast (Washington) they have the tsunami warning sirens, but other than that, no sirens around here in W. Washington. I can remember two instances in college where the fire alarms went off in my dorm (late at night both times, electrical problems both times.)
I got my copy of your book in the mail yesterday, and finished it about half an hour ago. Oh, I love living in the land of knitters. Wonderful book. (And, how can I have viral Second Sock Syndrome and finishitupitis at the same time?)
Ahh, yes, the sirens! A very uniquely American midwest kind of thing. The entertaining part is when you hear them going off during a storm, as if something really could be wrong, and see all the natives stroll to the windows, peer around a minute, go outside to get a breath of fresh air, decide that all the roiling clouds won’t amount to anything, shrug, and go back to our desks as if the sirens weren’t still going off. Scared the pants off my hubby the first time he heard them. I figure it’s payback for my first genuine earthquake experience.
I’ll be thinking of you tomorrow at 1pm when I hear the siren go off in Minneapolis-St.Paul. It’ll be my reminder to bring you a little something for the nerves.
You’ve not lived until you have been jarred by a tornado siren in Kansas. It will tear the skin off your teeth. Now, at 48, I sleep through them…
LOL!!!!!! That’s great! I would be scared witless too. You’re not alone. That noise that they have on the radio/TV to test if the emergency alert works makes my teeth grind, and I’ll be that this is much much worse.
Oh my gawd! You think they would have a sign in the hotel rooms!!!!
Poor girl!! You know… If you visit Missoula, Montana you’ll never have to hear a siren.. Unless.. of course… you WANT to hear one… We could make that happen for you if you come 🙂
I’m just back from the event at Borders. It seems a bad trade — you give us a wonderful, funny, heartening talk, and we give you … tornado sirens. Sorry about that.
Now I must go read the new book! I’ve loved every single one of your books. Please keep them coming. 🙂
Actually, I think that in your situation, that was the most logical response. Actually, in your situation, it was the ONLY reasonable response!
Every day at 12:15 PM, where I grew up, they tested the volunteer fire department siren, and hey still do. But it is probably not as loud as the one in Chicago.
Sorry! I live in a teeny town on a small island off the coast of Southern California and we test our emergency siren at noon on the last Friday of every month. I know it startles the visitors, we are a tourism economy, but it’s worth any upset to them. We depend on that siren in ways the visitors would never know. That siren calls out our volunteer fire department and all other emergency personnel, even tells them where the emergency is by the pattern. Yes, it’s scary to you. But it’s terrifying to us – because we really do know what that siren can mean in terms of loss of life and property. We really know.
Oh my! Sorry ’bout that. I could have warned you. My Aunt works on the 80-something-th floor of the Sears Tower and she’s mentioned it.
Sorry for that.
It is actually a state wide thing testing the sirens on the first Tuesday of the month.
(They really should post it at the airports or something.)
We are so used to it now, that the only time we actually pay attention to the testing is during tornado season and then you have to try and determine if ‘this is a test, a real test’ or an actual tornado is coming. (That actually happened last April.)
Incidentally, welcome to Illinois …were you can have the pleasure of experiencing a tornado and snow showers all in the same day.
Thank you so much for coming to Oakbrook!
It was such an exciting event.
My Husband came with me and he said he had a fun time visiting inside my world for a few hours.
I am so glad we were able to meet you!
oooh! We do that twice a year to all the grockles that may be on the island. We use the two minutes silence on armistice day (November) and Liberation day ( May 9th) as an excuse to test the civic warning(air raid)sirens. Scares the bejeezus out of them, makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and makes my dog sit up and howl 🙂
*snickers* ahh there’s definately nothing like that around here heheh
Ours are tested every Saturday at noon. The dogs have a great time singing along.
The one that got our attention was the test on the beach on Maui. We just happened to be there. Talk about sitting up and taking notice!
I completly sympathize with this. I lived in a very tiny town that used thier siren to call in the volunteer fire dept. They KEPT IT RUNNING UNTIL ALL VOLUNTERS WERE THERE! Sometimes 10-15 min. I suffered from migranes when I was preg. with first, I cannot tell you what the thought of that siren does to me even 6 years later. I am sorry for you, they are very scary.
Stephanie: you were wonderful at Borders last night. I came home and read the book. I inherited yarn from a woman, friend of my mother’s who died about 1970. She had been a solitary knitter all her life. She left me some beautiful salmon-colored fingering wool with which I made some wrist warmers. I love these and their legacy of an old knitter. Thanks for uniting us and being so funny and articulate. You’re a stitch.
They test our sirens (which also summon the volunteer fire departments for everything under the sun) every Saturday at noon here. In the town I grew up in it was every first Saturday at 10 or 11. Life in the Midwest is closely tied to the weather, I’m afraid. I hope you enjoy Chicago. It’s a great city.
So what happens if something bad happens on the first Tuesday of the month? It would be like college fire drills all over again. Seems the powers that be in the windy city might want to rethink this procedure….
(Part II) And now that I’ve read through the comments, I realize I must get out of New England more often! Who knew there were all of these sirens being tested across the land on such a regular basis!
Poor dear… but you did a great job last night in spite of the trauma that our fine state decided to inflict upon you.
Thanks for the warning!! I’m going to Chicago on Sunday for a conference and I would’ve acted the exact same way on Tuesday without the warning. I’ll stay updated to see if you have a report on what LYSs I should go to while I’m there! (Sorry I missed you!)
I think we’re missing the point, here (though, yes, in Kalamazoo the test always took place first Saturday at 1, which corresponded to the opening of a poetry reading more often than you’d think.)
Still, the pattern — Stephanie/Chicago/siren; Stephanie/Minneapolis/siren. Obviously it’s a Midwestern fanfare. Let’s see a little gratitude there, girl.
I grew up in the suburbs west of Chicago. I can’t remeber which day we had the siren test, but I do remember that, when it went off, all the kids would run out of their homes and run to the schoolyard where the siren was. Even as a child, I thought this was perhaps exactly what we were NOT supposed to do.
Funnily enough, I don’t remember ever hearing the siren for an actual tornado: the schools had their own internal sirens, one for fire and one for “emergency” (usually tornado). To this day when I hear a fire alarm, I think, “Windows closed for fire, open for tornadoes.”
You were great last night … today my daughter told me she hopes someday when she is a mom she can take her daughter to see you and get her very own book as well! =)
Thanks!
Yes, yes we have that. Surprise!
It’s really too bad that your visit to Chicago was last night rather than tonight. Droves more of Jewish knitters would have come to see you, but it was Passover.
Steph,
In St. Paul they sound the sirens at 1pm on the first Wednesday of the month. If you are here at that time today you will get to hear ours. It is really a welcome Stephanie siren.
I can also attest to San Francisco’s WEEKLY siren at 12 on Tuesdays. All the city busses had signs telling you “If you hear the siren at noon on a Tuesday, it’s just a test. If you hear it at any other time, it’s okay to totally freak out.” Or something like that. After almost three years in the city, this is the first semester I haven’t had a class that would get directly interrupted by the siren (smack in the middle, too). And, the walls at school are just thin enough for you to stop and wonder whether you should try to lecture over the siren again, or if you should just pause and wait it out.
You mean they have them out here, too? I’ve been living in LA/OC for 17 years now and never heard one. I thought it was one of my many rewards for moving!
holy cr@p! i have never lived in a city that *didn’t* test a siren once a month, so this possibility never entered my tiny little head! when i hear the siren, i always think “what day/date is it?” then i wonder what would happen if there were a tornado (or horseman of the apocalypse) on the test day at test time.
when you consider that, at any given time, there are like a gazillion people from out of town in chicago, one would think that the hotels would apprise their visitors of the impending test. geez. giving one’s guests a myocardial infarction is evil!
OH!
Oh, I can see where that would be startling, yes. In my hometown, it was always the first Wednesday of the month (then after a nasty tornado in 2000, it was the first and third Wednesdays). At my second-to-last apartment, I lived directly across the street from the tornado siren, and my days off were Wednesday and Thursday. Invariably, that first Wednesday was nerve-rattling when I tried to sleep in past noon.
And never – NOT ONCE, I tell you – did I ever stop on the first Tuesday and say to myself, “Hm. Tomorrow there will be a siren test, and I should be ready for that to occur.”
If I was already awake, it was merely annoying.
Doesn’t it make you wonder what would happen if there were a tornado at 12 noon on a Wednesday, though?
Sorry ’bout the siren! I just came back to the area and had forgotten all about this until Isobel and I were out and about at 10am. Thanks for your great talk last night – it was a treat to meet you in person. Hope the rest of the tour goes well.
I did the samething when the Snowbirds flew over my house to commerate the Queen’s birthday… I thought Vancouver was having its own 9/11…..phoned my Mum in tears…I’m 41 years old. Thank god she answered the phone and knew what was going on….like all Mums…..
I am a transplanted California girl living in Chicagoland and there is actually something worse than the scheduled siren testing…an actual storm during the testing time because you don’t know if it’s for real or not.
I’d rather have an earthquake over a tornado any day but I guess it’s a matter of what you grew up with.
Looking forward to hearing you tonight in St. Paul, MN. And how cool is this! Around the same time that you are in the state to keep on encouraging us knitters, my alma mater is hosting a gallery show on stitch artists:
“Mark Newport, who teaches at Arizona State University, proves that feminism has liberated stitchery as a medium for male as well as female artists. His handknit acrylic superhero suits invoke not only ultramasculine stereotypes but also the protective gestures of mothers whose handmade sweaters keep their children from harm. “Superheroes suggest strength, but knitting them or covering them with embroidery provides a softness that is contradictory to their image,” says Newport.”
(http://apps.carleton.edu/news/?content=content&module=&id=286739)
Here in Madison it’s the first Wednesday at noon, and it’s true what everyone ahead of me said: if there’s going to be an attack all they’d need to do is pick the test time. We DO heed them in the summer though, when the siren means “Grab the knitting, a snack, the laptop, two cats, a good book , a flashlight or candle lantern and battery-operated radio and head for the basement”….while yelling at the DH who insists he’d “like to SEE a tornado”.
Come to Medford, Oregon. No sirens, pear orchards in bloom. The oddest thing for new arrivals is the early morning,soft “whoom, whoom” of large propellers in the orchards trying to mix the cold and warm air to keep the blossoms and therefore fruit sets, from freezing. Everything is in bloom, we’re mowing lawns like mad. Get outta the mid-west!
When I was, seven we moved to a small town (pop. 3000) which had an audible fire signal code. It was to alert the volunteer firefighters of the location of a fire. The siren sounded out in blasts of long and short in combinations to indicated the street and house number. When the siren sounded everyone in town would stop and hold their breath waiting to see where the fire was, you’d hear a sigh of relief when it was not their home. Every now and then, you’d see some poor soul turn pale when they recognized the siren code for their home…
Just so, you know that if you ever make it to Halifax on your book tour, we fire off the canon on Citadel Hill everyday at noon.
We live 8 miles downwind from a nuclear power plant. Every Saturday around lunchtime, the siren and the dogs howl for one minute. Our guess is by the time an event took place at the plant and the sirens went off, it would be too late to leave and our iodide pills wouldn’t save us.
If you ever come to San Francisco, be forewarned. Same thing, loud enough to be heard miles away. Tuesdays at noon. Bring earplugs.
Hurray! I called Petaluma (about 1.5 hours from home here near Stanford) and reserved my copy and my seat to represent. I will actually get to view the fabled Harlot in all her – probably non-Bohus, given CA weather in June – glory with my very own eyes!
Is there anything finer? If you like, I can bring along a portable siren so you won’t feel that anything’s missing. Oh, and don’t forget to make the wonder publicist find some time for wine-tasting on this trip – there are great vinyards only a half-hour from Petaluma along the Russian River. You’ll deserve a break!
OK, I’ve finished five warm, wooly hats to give you when you come to WEBS in Northampton. My duty is done; you may arrive now.
Although…I would like to finish my first (!) socks by then, to show you; one sock is done (it fits!) and about an inch is done on the second sock. And, if I were really diligent, I could finish my handspun shawl by then, too – very simple pattern, from Victorian Lace Today, but pretty! And handspun! But I have to finish the Moderne Log Cabin blanket first, for Earle’s birthday two days before your WEBS event. A garter-stitch slog-bog.
I suppose that all is enough to keep me out of trouble between now and then. Clearly, you aren’t carrying enough WIPs on your trip to keep you out of trouble – that’s why the siren went off; it alerts the authorities that you are wandering around with possibly unoccupied sharp objects! Quick, buy more yarn and cast on something on every needle!
We have a shul around here that blares an air raid siren every Friday night as a call to prayer and every Yom Tov. It’s ear-splitting. Someone sued and they claimed it as a “religious requirement” (uh, dudes, there were no air raid sirens 4,000 years ago–just saying).
My hometown has a siren go off every day at noon and five. Then, my college tests theirs at four the second Wednesday of the month, when I am always outdoors. We are intrepid, we carry on.
I departed yesterday from Indiana (Fort Wayne area) at one-thirty, and, after a brief stint of misdirection in China Town, ended up in Oak Brook at five-thirty. You do the math. But I must say, and this is the point of the post, I had never seen so many of us in one place before, and have never had more fun! I adored your talk!
Wow Stephanie, I know what you mean about those tests, but I must say, I have yet to hear one here in South Metro Denver, so you may be in luck when you arrive here. The ones I hated were in Illinois, in the Peoria area, they blew them on a Saturday morning, when everyone likes to sleep in, well with enough complaints, yeah, they changed it to a weekday. Can’t wait to see ya, the anticipation is running high here in mile high city, we just started a 5280 sock-a-thon which is rockin’ on here.
My teeny home town set theirs off at noon Mon-Fri.
BTW it must be May because my Amazon pre-order arrived! Yeah!!!
Take care of yourself, Stephanie. Remember to eat, drink plently of fluids, sleep when you can, take a multi-vitamin, and put aside some time to knit in peace.
We care about you and want to see you, but there are few more important things in life than your sanity. Besides, there won’t be another book if this book tour kills you.
OH STEPHANIE! I HAVE HYSTERICAL TEARS RUNNING DOWN MY FACE AND ALL OVER MY SWEATER!
I hope you didn’t run out of your hotel room in your under-pinnings again.Just the thought of it keeps giving me the giggles
We test our sirens at 1 PM on the first Wednesday, so I hope you did not arrive in Minneapolis/St Paul until after that so you did not get frightened twice. I have always wondered what we would do if a tornado hit at 1 on the first Wendesday of the month. See you tonight at the Yarnery.
Kathy
So…what happens if there actually is a plane-involved disaster the first Tuesday of a month at 10? Does everyone ignore it? This does not seem safe.
Much Love.
my i grew up with sirens in new jersey
you need jack bauer and chole to help
you find your way bauer could put your
needles to good use
really you and the this group of knitters
are just delightful great bedtime storey
do you what happened to grandma in 2007
well let me tell you
Stephanie,
I love your take on knitting and life in general.
After 9 hours of teaching, one dr. visit, not to mention getting lost on the way to Oakbrook’s Borders…your presentation was well worth it. I am (selfishly) happy for your success as a writer because your vignettes inspire me to keep on keeping on… and make me smile.
You are so cool.
Thank you.
Wow, how is it that I’ve lived in Chicago for almost a year and a half and have never heard this? Maybe I’m blocking it out.
I would have been terrified, too!! This is exactly the sort of thing I would expect to happen to me. Actually, I’m kind of freaked out now by the fact that I haven’t noticed it. Maybe I’m going deaf? Or maybe it’s only downtown and those of us on the northside can’t hear it? I need to go get my ears checked.
So sorry this happened! Chicago is a nice city, otherwise, especially in the summer. Please come back and visit then!
Funny, I didn’t hear them yesterday. Must find out when our sirens go off in our town.
Everyone in our village knew about the sirens as they were placed on the schools. It’s odd that you really notice them when they go off and it isn’t Tues. at 10 A.M.
Oh that is awful!
Just wanted to say that I finally got your new book in the mail, read it in one sitting, and am now knitting the Traveler’s Life Aghan, which I plan to use as a shawl. Kudos on another successful book!
I’m from a small Michigan town, and like others have said, you don’t even notice it after a while. It goes off every day at noon and 10PM. My husband gets a little startled by the night ones.
I also grew up across the street from an elementary school, so I don’t hear recess bells anymore either. 🙂
Oh the one hand the sirens interrupt your day, and I’m sure are terrifying when you don’t know it’s a test. But on the other hand when the plant where my partner was working was destroyed by a F4 tornado in the middle of the workday I was really glad there sound system had been recently tested. NOAA thought that 70% of them should have died – everybody got to the shelters in time and no one was even seriously injured.
Oh you poor dear. That really sucks, but it’s terribly funny to be on the reading end of this post.
http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?productID=931
Oh gosh, I’m sorry!
If you ever come to the Netherlands, they do that every first monday of the month at noon here. Just a heads up 😉
Dear, wonderful, lovely Stephanie,
your presentation was awsome! I’m sorry that the tornado siren scared you, and you’re right – they should warn out-of-town guests about the tests. My friends took me to see you, and told me about your blog, and bought me your books.
For all that you’ve brought to my life with your wit and insight, THANK YOU!!!
Whenever you’re in driving distance, I will come and see you. And this time I’ll bring cookies and chocolate!
I grew up in Chicago. It is reassuring to know that the Tuesday morning Air Siren is still running (my mother grew up in the same house and remembers it well – her mother remembers when they started it).
I have told people about that siren but it has been so many years that I was beginning to believe I invented the whole experience.
Not so good for napping, but great for getting of public speaking in fourth grade.
usually i don’t comment because they run into the hundreds and i worry that you’ll just wear out before getting to mine, but this was just the funniest thing i’ve ever read, with a close second going to your “Ann Arbor” experience.
well this is a looong way down the list so i can’t imagine you’ll ever read this but
wow sorry that happened to you.
i am from chicago and all these years i never even registered it. couldn’t tell you what it was or why or when
just figured it was some “big city testing thing”
huh…
i live in denver now and missed seeing you but it was great to read your blog and see all my fellow mile high knitters come out in respectable numbers for ya! that boy’s tshirt is hilarious!
moving to cleveland for a while so i looked at your cleveland blog too. the picture of lily smoking in the car and refusing to get silly outside was a riot! i laughed out loud.
wonder if she registers loud siren thingies in new york?
hmmm, i think denver has one too, not sure. i know we fire cannons up in the mountains to bring down snow. nutty…
gonna have to wait and see about cleveland.
enjoy your canadian tranquility when you can, lovely knitter and thanks for sharing!
I just moved from an apartment in a town that tested their fire siren (we had a volunteer fire department and no cell towers) every Saturday at noon for FIVE MINUTES. I feel your pain.
I also just now got internet at my new house and so I am reading everything you have posted in the last MONTH while I have been without internet.
Nice site. Thanks!
Good site. Thank you:-)
Nice site. Thanks.