The Clock

 

    When my Dad went back to his house in southern Minnesota to get some things that he and Mom wanted, he brought back a couple of things for me. 

   One of those things was a quilt. During the time that Mom and I weren't speaking to each other, Mom took up quilting. Her goal was to make a quilt for each of her grandchildren, which I'm told she did. She also made a beautiful quilt that was on their bed at the house. I told my parents that if they did not want the quilt, I'd like to have it. It is very colourful and bright. Mom worked very hard to make it and I admired what she had done. I never knew she was so creative, she didn't do much in the way of crafts when I was younger.

   The other things was a clock. A wooden Gilbert mantel clock. It was given to my grandparents as a wedding present. The were married in 1933 so the clock is almost 90 years old. I remember it at my grandparents' house. When they passed away, my Dad got it and kept it on a side table at our house. It was one of his collection of clocks that he faithfully wound every week. Every hour on the hour all the clocks would chime. It took about ten minutes for all of them because it was impossible to set them to chime all at once.

   I've never owned a pendulum clock before so Dad had to give me some instruction on how to use it. It has to be wound using the key. There are two places that need to be wound. One controls the hands of the clock. When you wind that one you can see the hands move slightly. The second one controls the chiming. Since the clock is so old, Dad told me not to wind the clock all the way.

   The clock is on a bookshelf in our living room. It's a nice level space. In fact it the wood matches so well that it looks like it was made to have the clock sit there. I wasn't sure how Scamp would react to the sound of the clock. It ticks as the pendulum in the back swings back and forth. It didn't bother me as I was used to the sound. Scamp seems to be all right with it was well. In fact he seems to like the chiming.

   The clock keeps time fairly accurately, but only for about three days. We did have it chiming correctly, but I screwed it up and now it doesn't chime right. There is a way to fix it, I just haven't done it yet. 

   I enjoy having it in my house even though it doesn't work as well as it once did. I'm touched that Dad trusts me enough to give me this clock.