Back in Time

We've had a beautiful clock standing mute on our mantle at 1:20 when it finally stopped for good about 20 years ago. I've always loved this clock, inherited from my grandmother, but never could find anybody who knew how to repair it.

Friends in Sebastopol told us about the Simoni Clock Shoppe so we wrapped it up and took it in. As soon as we walked in the door and saw hundreds of clocks randomly arranged all over the place (and all ticking), the old fashioned cash register, and the untidy piles of papers and clock parts everywhere, we knew this was the right place. Mrs Simoni told us it would take three months, but since it hadn't worked for 20 years , three months was trivial.

Six months later I called, saying that they had had my clock for "months and months" and she laughed and said cheerfully, "well, we're months and months behind." Somehow she managed to locate it, and I picked it up today while OilMan and Ozzie waited outside. Temperatures in the 90's prevented us from leaving him in the car.

There was no rushing Mrs. Simoni. First she had to find the clock , then she had to search through a tattered book, unearthed from somewhere, for the clock's pedigree (a Waterford Crystal Regulator made in 1906, about the time our Berkeley house was built, which sold for $35). A final search produced a new key for winding it, a box to wrap it in and the advice to have it cleaned again in "about 20 years". I assured her that it most likely wouldn't be my problem in twenty years, and she said as I left, "Call if you have any questions and we'll see the kids in 20 years".

The clock now sits temporarily on a table in the farmhouse and it delights me to hear it strike the hour and the half hour once again. I remember several Christmas Eves when I was so excited that I'm pretty sure I heard it strike all night. A happy memory despite the fact that my bedroom was upstairs and far from where the clock stood in my childhood home. I can't wait to return it to its rightful place on our mantle in the house that was built the same time it was.