Among the many things I enjoy about Oliver, the one that stands out the most is how quiet the winter night is. At 10 pm while standing on the street and listening, all I hear is the silence and the stillness of the night. No barking dogs, no noisy motorcycles, no whine of the racetrack, and no truck jake brakes, unlike Osoyoos with its Anarchist Mountain highway winding its way into the Valley, rife with jake braking transport trucks.
Many an evening I have appreciated the full benefit of the Oliver quietness while standing on the blacktop and looking at the stars. As a child being raised by fruit growing parents, I don’t remember appreciating the quiet, quite like I do now.
In my pre-teen years, I remember waking up in the peacefulness of the morning after sleeping outside under the stars. The evening before, we would drag a canvass groundsheet onto the lawn, place a mattress on top of it along with sheets and blankets and we fell asleep watching the shooting stars as well as the odd satellite going over. I wasn’t aware of the evening stillness because our irrigation pump was usually running and it was nearby.
As a young teenager I enjoyed sleeping outside but didn’t enjoy hauling the mattress to the sawdust bin so it could dry out from the night dew while resting on the upside down apple boxes. Then having to haul it back to the lawn in the evening to sleep on it again. Finally, I just left the mattress on the over turned apple boxes, put sheets on it and slept on it as it was. I was still outside but protected from the elements and I slept wonderfully well! There didn’t seem to be many mosquitoes then either. I didn’t connect the dots at the time, but there seemed to be fewer Mosquito Hawks too.
In July of 2014, I wrote a bit for ODN about sleeping outside one summer night in Oliver during that year and the inconveniences of the night noises. Two years ago, one of my sisters gave me a blow up mattress complete with foot pump, so I could sleep outside in Edmonton. My first night was an experience! You must understand, our residence is .5 km from a major thoroughfare called The Whitemud Freeway.There were loud motorcycles, loud cars, jake braking trucks, emergency sirens blaring intermittently, and mosquitoes! The positive aspect was that the mattress was comfortable and I was warm enough.
I bought a mosquito net and ear plugs for the next night and slept like a baby, well… one that sleeps all night. My sleeping outside that summer ended with a down pour.
This year, I intend to sleep outside again, now that I’ve got it all figured out. I’ll still be subject to down pours, but I’ll take that risk.
When we return to Oliver for a visit during the warmer months, I’ll be looking forward to enjoying the evening silence. Hopefully, it will be as quiet as the winter nights were.
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