The other day I met up with two friends in Oxford, and after separating, we went our individual ways to shop.
I am used, by now, to background noise, even in supermarkets, but the noise from music in one shop was unbelievably deafening.
It was a pleasure to come out into the comparative quiet of the city centre.
As usual, there were some buskers, one particularly good one-man band collecting for charity.
I stood for 10 minutes and willingly donated.
Further along, a gentleman was playing a saxophone – not at all my thing, good though he was.
However, to my amusement, a man was having great difficulty in getting his dog to move along.
He was obviously captivated but it and was not in any hurry to leave – evidently music to his doggy ears!
One assumes the workers in the shop are either immune or partially deaf at the end of their working day – I couldn’t get out of there quick enough and my hearing isn’t exactly brilliant (I use an aid), but I wonder why this has become so necessary a part of daily life?
Many years ago, I silenced a workman who had had a blaring radio all morning.
I went and got my tape of a bellringing practice with 120 changes of grandsire doubles at full volume through an open window.
Message understood – peace at last!
DOROTHY HOLLOWAY, Wenrisc Drive, Minster Lovell
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