From the day
Perspective: The Teenager · Sound
The scratchy needle on the gramophone is howling "The Sheik of Araby" loud enough to drown out the clatter of those new Ford cars backfiring on the cobblestones. I’m leaning against the brickwork, adjusting my newsboy cap and watching the local swells act like everything is hotsy-totsy while the air smells of thick exhaust and winter damp. Ma is squawking about me spending my last two bits on the nickelodeon, especially with the price of gas hitting a whopping $0.30 a gallon for the motor-car crowd. Between the screech of the trolley bells and the gossip about that poor horseman getting crushed by an auto, this city sounds like a beautiful, terrifying riot today.