How I spent my day.

[Bob Wright]

My niece asked me to go with her to pick up a clock she had repaired down near Tunica, Mississippi. This was a wall clock that hung in her Dad's work place. Its in an oak case, and stands about four and a half feet tall. It is weight driven, but has an electric motor to raise the weight. this every twelve hours. She offered to buy my lunch also.

So she picked my up and I loaded my dolly into the back of her SUV. We drove down to Tunica, and as a passenger, I enjoyed the view as she drove. We ate at a place called the Blue and White Cafe, which dates from 1927. Formerly a full service station with attached cafe. Good Mississippi catfish for lunch. Then to pick up the clock.

Now this thing is HEAVY! And the clock repairman was a grouchy old man who simply sat in his rocking chair as we inquired about the clock. How to reattach the pendulum was our question and he tried to explain without getting out of his chair. I finally got tired of fooling with his explanations and decided I could figure that out myself.

So, my niece paid him, and without of his help, got the clock loaded and safely padded into the back of her SUV. And we drove back to Memphis. At her house we snaked it in around the kitchen appliances and into the den/breakfast nook. After some trial and error I finally got the pendulum reattached. Then restrung the drive chain from the motor and waited. The clock began to tick, the hands moved, the motor started and shut off when the weight reached the limit switch. All was well!

So that is why I was seen in Tunica, where the gamblers are, and with a woman not many folks knew.


Bob Wright

 

[blume357]

Yeah, and you stick to that story.......

Sounds like a good day to me....

 

[Kevin]

Sounds like fun, I love those old clocks and have several that show the correct time twice a day. Hmmm. I do have one and asked about getting it fixed. The trouble is, it's LOUD! And if it's running, it's got to stay running, otherwise it goes back to it's current condition of showing the correct time twice a day.

 

[Johnnu2]

Thanks for the explanation Bob.... I was wondering why you were there with that younger gal..!!! Yup, the rumor reached all the way up here..!!!

p.s. when living in Mn. I went to work on a Monday and was asked why I was driving my Corvette in Lake City over the weekend with a blonde "who was definitely not your wife"..... Love small towns despite the lack of anonymity....

J.

 

[Dach Savage]

Glad you cleared that up Bob. We were kinda wondering... Dach.

 

[Dach Savage]

I have a clock story too but with a little more poignant ending.... A few years after my wife died I met a gal and we went out a few times. She was tall, lissome and incredibly beautiful and sexy as well as quite intelligent. After a while we were a "thing" and I saw a bright future for us and she seemed to feel the same. One weekend at her place I was looking at a beautiful vintage grandfathers clock (moon phases and everything) in her living room and asked her about it. She told me it was an old family heirloom and she really loved it but that she was thinking about getting rid of it as it didn't run and the only clockmaker she could find that was willing to tackle it wanted a bunch of money and the clock had to be delivered to his shop for the repairs. I filed this away in the back of my mind and over the next few weeks - months I looked inside it to see who the maker was, model etc and if it was just something simple. I ended up doing quite a bit of research on the subject and was planning on broaching the question of letting me have a look at it. Well, one weekend shortly thereafter she had to go out of town for a professional conference and I didn't really want to leave town just then so off she went, 3-4 days in another town etc. I dropped her off at the airport that morning and before she was in the air I was back at her place with my tools, supplies, laptop etc. I spent the next 3 days tinkering with that clock, cleaning oiling tweaking and repairing that fine old fellow. It really wasn't too bad mostly its issue was caused by improper moving over decades, lubrication and regulating it. So the day arrived and I picked up my sweetheart at the airport and drove her home, made us some coffee and while we were sitting and doing the crossword puzzle and catching up the clock whirred and fired up and chimed the hour. She looked over at me dumbstruck as if to ask If she was crazy or did I hear it too. I checked my watch and said "Yep, right on time too" and confessed that while she was gone I had had a look at the clock; did a little cleaning and oiled it and got it running and I had struck a bargain with it. She asked what the bargain was and I told her that the clock told me that it was energized by love and agreed that it would chime and keep as best a time as it could as long as she was my true love. To say she was over the moon would be an understatement. Said I was the most romantic man she had ever met etc etc etc. Skip ahead a little over 4 years and we split up when I found her cheating on me. She ended up telling me that she had found someone more fitting (richer) to her station in life and that I was just an ignorant redneck. The next day I went down and enrolled in community college (at the age of 50) and for the next 2 years I worked to get 2 degrees and to get over the woman that ripped my heart out. Just about the time I was finishing my 2 AAs I heard from a mutual friend that she had been having coffee with my ex and looked over at the grandfathers clock and saw that it wasn't ticking. She said that my ex told her sadly, and with a tear in her eye, that it hadn't run no matter what anyone tried since the day she married X (my replacement)...Dach.