Clocks and time

When I was a little girl, my Papaw was always building something.  He had lots of wood working tools in his basement and he used to let me help him build things.  We made shelves and I watched him make baskets out of peach pits and all sorts of neat things.

My Papaw's favorite passtime was building clocks.  He had a shelf in the house that was full of clocks he'd built, cuckoo clocks in the den and several grandfather clocks throughout the house.  There was even a clock that he built in which even the gears were made from wood.  He was so proud of that clock.

I have so many happy memories from my Mamaw and Papaw's house.  My Papaw built the house too, when my Dad was a little boy.  And when I was little, I got to play with toys that my daddy played with when he was little.  I learned to take care of things, so that I would have them later.  Be careful, don't break it-you might want to play with it later!

Today, my dad made a special trip down here to bring me the grandfather clock that I had picked out.  He helped me carry it upstairs, level it, taught me how to set the time (there's a special process for clocks that chime), pulling the weights, speeding it up or slowing it down.  During all this, I noticed there was a paper in the bottom of the base, and I asked Daddy what it was.  He reached down and showed me that it was the specs for the clock.

Across the top of the page, in my Papaw's knotty handwriting, was the date he build the clock: April 1976.  It seems to be fate that this clock now sits in my house.  This is the first time in my whole life that it hasn't sat at the top of the stairs in the house my Papaw built.  I wonder if the house will be lonely for it's ticking and the chime.

I know it makes me smile when I think of it's song.  It reminds me of being small, and knowing that I am loved.  That there will be chicken and dumplins on Sunday night and Mamaw will make sure to have biscuits and apple butter.