Keeping time

When Russ graduated from college, his parents gave him this mantle clock. While we didn’t have a mantle until we bought our first home, around Rachel’s first birthday, it sat on a shelf in the rentals and brought a little class to our hand me down furniture. 

Ever after that, we have owned homes with a mantle. Whatever decor ideas I may have or dream about, they must work around this guy. And that is fine. It was a lovely gift and becomes more treasured as the years pass. 

So recently when it stopped keeping time, we had to make a decision. Clock repair shops are a dying breed, as you can imagine in this digital age. We had the name of a guy so we took the clock to him and swallowed hard as he shared the cost of the new mechanism he would have to order from Germany plus his time. 

It was not a tough choice and recently we picked up the newly refurbished keepsake on a blustery November day. Russ set it up on the mantle and got the pendulum inserted and all was well. 

Until the quarter hour when it began to chime. Our old clock didn’t chime because that mechanism offered a switch to turn it off. We kind of liked the quiet about that feature. This model did not include such an easy out.

As it chimed through the evening, I googled ways to stop the chime and finally Russ called the repair guy as bedtime was approaching rapidly and we didn’t want this new noise in the house. 

He explained that the chime is engaged by using one of the three winding options on the front of the clock. He told us which one NOT to wind in the future, shared that it would take about ten days to wind down and bid us adieu. 

So we have grown accustomed to the chime. It is actually helpful for this late running procrastinator as I can hear the quarter and half hour reminders to get my hiner out the door and not be late to work. 

The chime itself is a very pretty tone, which is pleasant if you have to listen to something every fifteen minutes. I have had some moments of confusion as I am off in another room working on something and I hear an unfamiliar sound. I begin to question what timer I set and forgot about or what app makes that noise as a notice. 

Probably the sweetest thing about this clock going off quarterly through the hour is the reminder of the couple that gave it to their son.

Those two used to sit in their recliners with an end table between them that held crossword books, pens, reading books, the Bible, newspapers, magazines, a deck of cards, toothpicks…always toothpicks, and a phone with a speaker option.

Standing majestically behind this oasis in which they read and watched TV, was a grandmother clock. Not the full height of the grandfather, it still had nothing to be ashamed of when it came to its chime. 

Invariably, this sweet couple would press speed dial for one of their three children with just enough time to spare before the full hour chimed. We would pick up on our end, usually as we were sitting down to a meal, and it was guaranteed that we would all have to pause the conversation and wait for the bonging of the hour to cease. 

There you would stand on your phone, no speaker option available and attached by cord to the wall. Across the room, your family sat waiting patiently as the plates cooled. It was, well, like clockwork. 

And I miss it. 

I miss them. 

I miss the two people slowly asking us how things were and even more slowly sharing the news from back home. 

I miss the endless piles of newspaper and magazines, the soft hugs and the love they gave so genuinely. 

I miss their tears every time we left.

And yes, as our clock just now chimes that it is 8:30 A.M. just above where I sit typing, I miss standing holding my phone in my hand, leaning on the counter and watching a table full of Reimers sneaking food and rolling their eyes. 

Perhaps we will wind that chime option one more time in a few days.