Another remembrance from my youth concerning noise... When the streetcars on Kedzie Ave, a north/south artery about 100' from my childhood home,were replaced by busses in 1953(?) I didn't sleep very well at night for the longest time. The "owl" streetcars had become "white noise" and the absence of their rumblings,whinings,whooshings and slammings caused my temporary insomnia. It was a racket that my body had become used to,even in sleep! Charlie
For the first 18 years of my life I lived two blocks away from a busy mainline that saw an average of 8 to 12 fast freights per day, most after 9 p.m. I do not remember a time when the noise of a train disturbed my sleep. Believe crime was much less common then than now, but the area I grew up in was eventually more suburban than rural without a great increase. Only once did I see a hobo on a Seaboard freight and it was moving at about 50 - 60 mph so he wasn't getting off much short of the Savannah River ~85 miles away.
