The Clock

This is my great-grandfather's clock.

It kept time on the wall of his small grocery store in Montebello, California, back in the 20's and 30's.

My mother inherited it from him.

This Seth Thomas clock was an important part of my growing up years.

It hung on the wall in the family room of my childhood home. 

We willed those hands to reach the correct time as we waited for our favorite TV shows.

Bewitched, The Adam's Family, The Brady Bunch, Partridge Family and during my early teens, Donny and Marie. (swoon)

It's a schoolhouse clock...an old-school wind-up clock.

Wind it up and it runs for eight days straight.

It keeps perfect time.

This was both good and bad when I was growing up. 

Good when I was getting ready to go somewhere...

Bad when I came home late on a Saturday night.

It also has a loud tick tock...

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. 

My friends complained about it when they'd sleep over.

We always had sleepovers on the floor of the family room, playing games, watching Nightmare Theater and staying up 'til all hours (because we'd watched Nightmare Theater).

I love the sound of that clock. 

It's strong, steady and familiar.

Sometimes I don't hear it at all...and then I'll see the pendulum swinging back and forth and the ticking and tocking will waft over my ears...there it is...

Many years ago, my parents asked my sister, brother and I which family heirlooms we wanted to inherit.

I didn't hesitate. 

Great Grandpa's old clock.

When my mom moved this summer, she gave it to me.

It hangs in our den, ticking off it's familiar beat.

The other day, I was talking to my daughter on the phone. 

In the middle of our conversation she said, "Mom, I hear the clock. I love that clock!"

There it was.

That loud, familiar friend.

Nearly a hundred years of ticking and tocking and keeping time for generations of children and grandchildren.

I wonder what secrets...what stories that clock could tell...