I simply love the sound of gravel. I'm not sure if it gives a feeling of expectation (someone is arriving) or it is a comfort feeling, but there it is. My love for it. One of my favorite things about staying at a certain friend's cabin is that it sits alongside a gravel road. There's no secret when neighbors come and go.
I thought this was unique with me (well I know one of my sister's shares the feelings) until my DIL was describing a large home one of their colleagues was building and she mentioned the work they put into making a gravel driveway. This is probably not a cheap home and they could have afforded a quieter drive way. That's when I learned I'm not alone in this love of mine.
And you?
Most definitely! My grandmother in Mississippi lived on a gravel road and we could always tell when we were about to get a visitor...you could hear the car slow down before it came into view. My grandmother, though, did much care for the dust it left in her house, and that was with the house sitting quite a bit off the road. When we bought the house we live in it had a gravel driveway--long and steep. I'm sure one of the reasons we bought the house was because of the sound of the car tires on the gravel. And then I got a porch swing just like my grandmothers and would enjoy the sound of the graveled lane behind us. Alas, both our driveway and the lane have been paved.....but I still have the swing. Thanks for the stroll down Memory Lane, Dotsie! I love the photo!
ReplyDeleteThis absolutely true, Dotsie...we have to travel 1.8 miles on the gravel road that leads to our cabin. No doubt you have seen pics of it in my posts. It winds and curves and the gravels pop! As soon as we turn on the road, my little dogs are always in their carriers and they go crazy when they hear the gravel! Like you said, you always know when someone is coming too...the cabin is clear up top but you can hear someone approaching shortly after they turn on the road w-a-y down below. I love this post :)
ReplyDeleteI love real gravel roads, but not the red dirt, big boulder rock, what they call "gravel" road around here. I would love to gray gravel my entire driveway,(that's what I call it) but with sil's 18 wheeler and the school bus..it's not feasible.
ReplyDeleteI remember when Kayla was 2 or 3 we were on a gravel road and she said, "It sounds like it's raining popcorn!"
ReplyDeleteThe crunch of tires on gravel and rain on a tin roof are two of my favorite things. I like to think of them as "southern" sounds.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Bonnie
I never thought about this until now...you conjured up my childhood memories of my father's tires on our gravel driveway when he'd pull in from work. When I was making a big garden bed at the lake, I wanted pea gravel walkways and everyone advised me against it as it spits out onto the grass. There has to be a way!!
ReplyDeleteXO,
Jane
I do too sweet Podso...I love the sound of gravel while you slowly head for the driveaway, or whatever place...I like the way you put it,"like expectation!"
ReplyDeleteHugs,
FABBY
I do enjoy a gravel road, but I don't believe I'd enjoy living on one or having a cottage on one for the reason you mention. I would be a swivel head wondering who was coming or going.
ReplyDeleteWe live in the country and still have a gravel driveway and you're right, we can usually hear when someone arrives except in the winter when it's snow packed for almost 6 months. So that's half of the year that we can hear someone coming. :) I like your photo and wonder what's around the bend in the road.
ReplyDeleteVery few gravel driveways anymore but I know that familiar crunch sound of a car pulling in and knowing that someone had arrived.
ReplyDeleteSomething I haven't thought about in a long time, and I love how these conversations come up on yours and Vee's blogs.
Oh, yes I do love a gravel driveway! Ours is not gravel. It is made of stones, but it offers the same kind of audio clue that someone is arriving. (The down side is that it is hard for kids to bike or skate on it. My children always envied my neighbor's blacktop driveway for that reason.)
ReplyDeleteI do love gravel roads too! It reminds me of the lake cottage up in Wisconsin. Lazy summer days fishing and swimming.
ReplyDeleteThe gravel road photo reminds me of gravel road to our home in Walderston, Jamaica. That road holds some wonderful memories.
ReplyDelete