This Is The Most Ohio Sound You'll Ever Hear, And We Can't Stop Listening To It
By Sarah McCosham|Published April 10, 2024
×
Sarah McCosham
Author
I write like it's my job - because it is! I have a Master's in English and love words: crossword puzzles, Scrabble games, Wordle, and, of course, good, old-fashioned books.
I'm a writer and editor at OnlyInYourState, and a contributing writer at Cincinnati Magazine. I love the Great Outdoors and am endlessly awestruck by this beautiful country of ours. Coffee keeps me going, yoga keeps me sane, my kids keep me grounded, and my writing keeps me inspired.
When someone says they hear “crickets,” they’re likely referring to silence. Like, when I ask my oldest if he did his homework or made his bed, and he responds with a blank stare and a “cricket filled” silence that betrays him! For me, though, crickets conjure up memories of being a scrappy kid in Ohio in the ’80s and ’90s, when I’d run around our yard, barefoot, catching lightning bugs and playing “kick the bottle” with my brothers and the rest of the neighborhood. These summer nights had a soundtrack — a symphony of cicadas, crickets, and katydids — and for me, it’s the most delightfully “Ohio” sound you’ll ever hear.
For me, summer nights conjure up deep-rooted nostalgia, bringing me back to a simpler time where my biggest worries were skinned knees and itchy mosquito bites.
The humid air, smells of distant cookouts, and taste of melted popsicles all play key roles in this throwback, but nothing puts me back in Ohio in 1989 quite like the sound of chirping katydids.
For all the other science nerds out there, grasshoppers and katydids belong to the insect order Orthoptera. Grasshoppers belong to the suborder Caelifera, while katydids belong to the suborder Ensifera and are sometimes called Long-horned Orthoptera for their long, thread-like antennae.
When accompanied by other "musicians" native to Ohio -- cicadas, spring peepers, American toads, and even barn owls -- katydids become part of something larger that's truly sublime.