Chalk screeching across a classroom chalkboard. Jet engines roaring. All ordinary, familiar sounds when they come from the ordinary, familiar sources. How extraordinary when the source is Michael Winslow. Michael's mother remembers how he would avoid sleep after being put down for a nap by mimicking the noises the jet engines and trucks made on the Spokane, Washington Air Force base where she and husband Robert were raising a family.
Military families are inherently mobile, making it difficult for the children to keep friends.
He discovered quickly that the barks of a large, ferocious dog could scatter a group of bullies intending to harass the new black kid. As Michael grew older, he learned how easily he could gain control of a classroom with his odd noises and voices. He created conversations between the laboratory mice, frogs and the earthworms in science class. The teacher's feet would sound as though they were sloshing in wet sneakers as she crossed the room. Her reprimands and scoldings were interrupted by squealing chalkboard sounds.