ELDER EARS

Regarding “A cup of silence, please” (August 12): I was interested to read Lena Gaber’s article, but one omission that particularly bothers me nowadays is the noise of screaming children!

As a senior citizen, it is many years since I coped with bringing up a family of four boys, and how times have changed. They would never have been allowed to disturb the conversation of adults, but either go to their room or outside in the garden to play and let off steam.

Nowadays, it seems to be quite normal to keep them up until late hours, especially when coming to visit grandparents, either in a restaurant or visiting, sometimes in a retirement home. There appears to be no control by the parents, even though their precious little ones may not be so welcomed by outsiders listening to their screams of delight at being “let loose”!

In our day, we would have been appalled at our children running wild emitting extremely high decibels – but nobody takes any notice nowadays.

I dread to hear other people’s children shattering my peace, especially late in the evening. Am I “the odd one out”?

JOY COLLINS Protea Village, Bnei Dror Editor’s note: You’re not.

I was intrigued by Lena Gaber’s article. Entering any restaurant in Israel, my first request, almost always, is “Please lower the music!”

It seems, especially if there is the slightest indication of a bar in the restaurant, that loud music is what encourages the patrons to order more drinks or food.

There is one new restaurant in our city that we enjoy. However, I will not go there later than 5 or 5:30 p.m. so we can leave before the “loud music time,” which must be about 7 or 7:30, when the music, especially the bass beat, gets quite unbearable and greatly limits conversation. I have not even considered the other situations that the writer has mentioned – traffic, etc.

It will be interesting to see how all of this affects us in the coming years!

DOROTHY FRIEDMAN Modi’in