Tag: Grandma’s clock

Grandma’s Clock (Part 3) (or Give Yourself Time!)

Grandma’s Clock (Part 3) (or Give Yourself Time!)

Back in the day while staying at Grandma’s the clock was ever present, chiming every fifteen minutes and the announcing the hour with chimes on the hour. It seemed like Grandma never heard it – she slept through it all night while we seemed to be restless and eventually settled when Dad shoved a handkerchief in the mechanics to disrupt the timing mechanism.

I don’t remember exactly how I came to be the guardian of the clock, but it was put under the house in Kingsland in 1990 after Grandma died. It wasn’t working. It took ten years until I had the mechanism overhauled and assumed a pride of place in several houses. It stopped working again after several years and the verdict was “a complete overhaul” which I had completed.

When I recently moved, I forgot to take the weight out that you must do when moving a clock like this and it stopped working. So it was out to a watch and clock repairer in New Lynn for an overhaul. They agreed to also restore the wooden casing and the gold lettering and face. “Could be three months” I was warned. No problem I said. It was a year actually – the watchmaker who was to do the work sadly died – “quite inconvenient” I was told – but when I collected it recently it was an unexpected moment of joy. My very own “The Repair Shop” moment!

The watchmaker was as proud as I was satisfied

It’s got pride of place in the landing at my home and keeps almost perfect time. Living in a new modernist style home the chimes transport me to another place and time. A place of warmth, care, holiday excitement and the anticipation of what each day might hold – sometimes the amazing and quite new St Lukes Mall with its beads of water cascading down invisible plastic threads from ceiling to ground, Waiwera Hot Pools, Stanmore Bay for swimming, and the Auckland Zoo.

The original instruction booklet

I don’t really enjoy the burden of physical objects that might fit the category of “take if the house is burning down”, but I definitely have one now. Well two actually, but that’s for another day. For now, finally, it’s back to its former glory, functional, and permanently home. A contented feeling.

Stephen

The style of the Clock is known as a Striking Mantel Clock. It is “The Enfield Full Quarter Westminster Chime” and the instructions which I still have record “Give yourself Time!“. It appears to have been popular in the 1940s and 1950s when it is thought that Grandma and Grandad purchased the unit. You can purchase a good second-hand one for $600 in New Zealand, but if you want to restore one be prepared for a multiple of that figure! I am hopeful that one of my sons will one day take guardianship of it for another generation of memories. The Westminster Chimes come from Big Ben’s chimes in London.

Grandma’s Clock Part Two

Collecting the clock from after its refurbishment before Christmas the Clockmaker declared it “fully wound, you should rewind it every week”. The clock has three wind mechanisms – the clock, the hourly signals and the fifteen minute chimes. I don’t usually have the latter two wound, preferring not to be woken every fifteen minutes. Somehow Grandma could sleep through it though!

So I’ve been removing the weight, the thing that keeps the “tick tock” going, a lovely soothing sound, during the evening. Sometimes I’m too busy or don’t remember to put the weight back in so it’s taking quite a few weeks to wind down the offending chimes.

It’s a long weekend for the top half of the North Island and another one for the whole country next week, thanks to Waitangi Day being on the Monday. Having been back at work for two weeks there’s a lingering sense of holding on to the holidays with two long weekends in a row. And hoping that we might get more than a few summer days in a row!

Leadership is always on show – I’ve blogged about that many times. You know, if you run into a leader you admire in the weekend, will you find the same person you know or know of if it’s a public leader? You should do I reckon. If they’re an authentic leader.

But leadership is also about taking the weight off when you can and when you need to. Some people like Grandma never seemed to need to – she was a hardworking woman who was doing the accounts for a local business well into her seventies – and later, yes later, Patron of the local Bridge club.

I’m nursing some soreness which is meaning a bit of a stand-down from long runs at the moment, so that combined with the long weekends means taking the weight off for a bit. Even though it’s the start of the year, it’s still a good time to build resilience. In fact it’s always a good time to build resilience so take the weight off when you can, whatever time of the year it is.

Maybe just overnight, like the clock!

You’ll be a better leader for it.

Stephen

Grandma’s Clock Part One

Visiting Grandma (and Grandad till he died in 1967) in Auckland in the 1960s and 70s were great times.  The memories are not complete without reference to the sound of the mantle piece clock sounding every 15 minutes. After Grandma died in 1990 I took over the clock which after 50 odd years of service had stopped functioning. It wasn’t until this century that I had it restored to it’s former glory though somehow I don’t have the same ability to sleep through the chimes every 15 minutes that Grandma seemed to, so I don’t wind up the chimes or on-the-hour bells.

It’s incredible how the sound of the clock can bring back so many memories, both in time and space and when the dear old clock stopped working a few weeks ago it was off to the Polish watchmaker in Queen Street who restored it originally for me.  Grandma was a no nonsense person who said what she thought when she thought it and didn’t go for ceremony or emotion. Watching the celebrated New Zealand pianist Michael Houston in full flight on the TV once she remarked: “Why doesn’t he keep his head still – he’s only hitting the keys, all that moving around is quite unnecessary!”

The message from the watchmaker was one Grandma would have appreciated. Listen to it here: Watchmaker message. Priceless. Just what you’d expect. It’s a full service required – $400 – but that’s a small price to pay for keeping all those memories alive.

We should look forward and live in the present. But we are made up from the past too.

Stephen