What time do you think it is?

I love clocks and wrist watches. I like knowing what time it is. I hate being late although knowing the time and being late are not at all related. It seems it should be, but one is not dependent on the other.

I did not really realize how many clocks I have until one morning over Christmas vacation. Phuong, Michael and Brian were staying with us for a few days. I woke up at my usual early time, checked my battery operated alarm clock - just in case the electricity goes out, put on my glasses so I could check the clock on the cable box and got up to make coffee. Incidentally the coffee pot is about 2 feet from the atomic clock. As I looked past the clocks on the microwave, oven and two walls of the kitchen, down the hallway I saw several clocks on the floor, neatly stacked by the bedroom door. Hmmm, I thought to myself. What is this about? When P woke up she told me that all the battery operated ticking clocks kept her awake! Sorry about that! Who knew!

One of my summer goals is to get the Ethan Allen clock fixed. Presently it is hanging uselessly in the dining room waiting for me to take it to a clock repair shop. I received it as a college graduation gift from my parents and it has been everywhere with Bob and me, working or not. The clock, not Bob and me. Anyway, it has been stopped for about 22 years - since we moved here from VA. I did get it repaired once, but it quit again. This summer is the time to fix it. I would love to have it done before we have visitors again.

One of my earliest memories of clocks that chime is sleeping on the sleeping porch at my grandparents on Patterson Street in Neosho, Missouri. It was always hot since we went in the summer and the porch had no air conditioning. These days we would have made a pallet on the floor and slept inside, but in those days, no. We just toughed it out, Jerry and me, on the double bed on the hot, humid porch. Sounds awful, but it was not. The really weird part was it was near the bathroom that my grandfather used. He took out his false teeth at night and left them in that bathroom. We never talked about that - in those days children were seen and not heard! I digress.. I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear the clock chime once. What time do you think it is? It could be 12:30 am or 1 am or 1:30 am. I always had to stay awake until the next chime or the next to decide which one it was.

Timely memories - all!