A Tour of Certain Man’s Clocks

This is the clock that I told you about last week — the one he bought for $25.00 at a yard sale.

This is a very old one that a friend bought at a sale.  It is in wonderful shape, but it does not chime.  Because of that, we hung it in Cecilia and Nettie’s room because clocks striking really bother our Cecilia-girl.
It is a very nice clock.  Rick Lee donated to Certain Man’s Collection.  I love it so much.

Daniel found this one on a junk heap in the neighbor’s basement when he did a service call there for a plumbing problem.  He asked him what he planned to do with it, and the guy said, “Take it!  It won’t work, but maybe it can be used for parts or something.”  So Daniel brought it home, got it repaired and it works like a charm.  It is one of his favorite clocks, though he sometimes struggles with whether he should give it back to the family of this man since the man has passed on and he thinks it would mean something to them.  It remains to be seen what he will decide, but I suspect he will eventually offer it back to them.

This is a ship’s clock, and WOWSER! Does it ever strike loud.  Even with a silencer on it, it is our loudest clock.  Middle Daughter bought it for Certain Man for Christmas a year ago, and he had quite a time until his clock man finally educated him on the fact that a ships clock strikes differently than any other clock.  Starting with 12:30, a ship’s clock strikes once, at 1:00, twice.  1:30, three times, 2:00 four times, 2:30 five times, 3:00 six times, 3:30 seven times and 4:00, eight times.  Then it starts all over again.  At 4:30, once, 5:00, twice, etc.  What a mess he had until he had this figured out.  But the novelty of it makes this one of his most discussed clocks.

This marble clock is a family heirloom.  Certain Man’s step mother gave it to him about a year ago because, again, it wouldn’t run.  He had it repaired, cleaned, and it is doing really well.  It is extremely heavy.

This is one of our oldest, rarest clocks.  It was my Grandpa Yoder’s and it really is unusual.  Daniel bought it from a family auction and actually paid more for this clock than any other clock he has, but even then, he is told he stole it.  He tends it carefully, just like a mammy, coddles it, watches it, and if the slightest thing goes wrong, he worries exceedingly about it.  He is not one bit shy about saying that this is his favorite of them all.

Back when Certain Man began showing an interest in clocks, we lived next door to a guy who was really into clocks at that particular time.  He knew alot, and had access to quite a variety.  When Certain Man mentioned that he really was interested in a marble clock (this was over 20 years ago) I asked Donnie to watch for one for him.  Donnie found this one, and it needed a LOT of work.  With Donnie’s careful, painstaking detailing, this was the finished result.  If you look at those gold blocks that are opposite the 3 and the 9, one of those is the original piece, and one of them is the piece that Donnie made and put in there.  Close inspection shows which is which, but it isn’t really obvious.

This is a Howard Miller Clock that we bought new a long time ago.  The front face fell off, and that bothers me, but Certain Man says it works fine like this and he will get it fixed eventually.

Certain Man bought this Anniversary Clock for me for a gift.  It is very old, and we have more trouble keeping it running than we do any other clock.  I understand that isn’t unusual for old anniversary clocks, but I am always glad when it is running.  It is precious to me because my husband got it as a symbol of the TIME we have spent together.

This little cuckoo clock was bought for Certain Man by Middle Daughter when she went on a tour of Europe with four other girls back in 2002.  It has suffered many indignities, an unfortunate fall off the wall, and many, many repairs.  Right now we are having a time keeping it running.  Mr. Adams (of Tick Tock Tyme) keeps making suggestions and sometimes adjustments, but we’ve really not found what is wrong.  Sometimes it works for weeks at a time, but then it stops abruptly without warning, and takes a rest for a while.

Two “humpback” clocks.  The one on the left is one we bought about 15 years ago at SAMS Club.  It is a Seth Thomas, Westminster Chime, and has been a good clock.  The other clock was one Certain Man bought when he answered an ad with a cuckoo clock for a “two for one” deal.  The cuckoo clock turned out to be a dud.  A pretty one, but it was unable to be fixed.  That has made this clock “one of the many” that doesn’t have a great story or even a close attachment, but it has a true strike, and it is attractive.

I bought this Clock for an Anniversary present for Certain Man for (I think!) our 20th anniversary.  I bought it at Byler’s Store in Dover, and I love the little boy and girl that kiss each other every hour and every half hour throughout the day.  The water wheel turns, and it sings “eidelweiss” (or another similar tune) whenever the cuckoo comes out.  When there are small children here, Certain Man often holds them up so that they can see the birdie and watch the wheel turn and the little people kiss.  It is always a hit.

This clock was on a Yard Sale directly across the street from Certain Man’s parents in Plain City.  The lady said that it hadn’t worked for a while — she thinks she may have wound it too tight.  It was in good shape, was a Westminster Chime, and so Daniel bought it.  One of his sisters had been looking at it and decided that she wasn’t going to spend money for a clock that didn’t work.  Certain Man brought it over to the house and started to tinker with it and whenever it stopped, he started it again.  After several times of doing that, it started to run on its own and has been running ever since.  Of course, then his sister wanted to buy it from him, but he wasn’t about to give it up.  Whenever he rescues a clock and is able to make it run again, it has a special place in his heart.

This clock came from Daniel’s Uncle Abe Miller in Florida.  It wouldn’t work, and he couldn’t find anyone to repair it.  Daniel was certain that someone here could, so Uncle Abe sent it to Daniel’s Parents in Ohio where Daniel picked it up and brought it to Delaware to get it repaired.  When it was finished, Daniel took it to a BMA convention to catch a ride back to Florida to the rightful owners.  Uncle Abe and Aunt Inez had it for a for a time, and then Uncle Abe decided that he really didn’t want it.  So, he sent it back to Ohio and told Daniel’s parents to give it back to Daniel for getting it fixed.  Daniel’s father decided that he wanted it, so he put it back on their wall over the dining room table, and nothing Daniel could say would induce him to part with it.  There it hung for a number of years until last fall when we cleaned out the house after Dad and Mom Yutzy went to the nursing home.  Uncle Abe also had passed away by this time, and so Daniel finally brought the old regulator home.

This “Grandmother” clock belonged to my Daddy and Mama.  It was left in the house on Andrewsville Road when we moved there from Ohio back in 1983.  It is a beautiful clock, but again, they could not get it to run.  Daddy said that it never had run right, but it was a beautiful thing.  So it sat in our “green room” until one day, Timothy Schlabach was there, doing a job for us of some sort and he said that he thought he could fix it, so he took it away.  And we promptly forgot about it.  The time came for us to move to Milford, and we packed up all our stuff, never even thinking about the (by now) long gone clock. 

One day, after we had lived in Milford for a while, the phone rang and a voice that I had never heard before said, “This is Wayne Adams from Tick Tock Tyme and I have your Grandfather clock repaired.  It’s ready to be picked up.” 

“What?”  I asked with more than a little disbelief.  “Our Grandfather Clock?  We don’t own a Grandfather Clock.” 

“Well, this one has your husband’s name on it,”  he said confidently.

“Who said it was ours?” I asked, still drawing a complete blank.

“When Timothy Schlabach had his stroke,” he explained patiently, “he had a number of clocks that he said needed repair, so I took them all and have been working on them, and this one came from you according to the label on it.”

“Huh!”  You could have knocked me over with a noodle.  “How much are the repairs?”

“It will be $200.00,” he said.  “I had quite a bit of work to do on it.  It was in pretty bad shape.”

“Well, if you say it is ours, I am sure that my husband will want it. I will have him call you back.”  I raced to the chicken house where Daniel was working and I said, “Hon, this man just called and said he has our Grandfather clock repaired and ready for pick up!”

“What?!?!? We don’t own a Grandfather Clock!”

“That’s what I said, too,” I said, “But he said that he got it from Timothy Schlabach and it has our name on it, so he figures it has to be ours.”  I will never forget, standing there at the chicken house door, him on one side, I on the other, pondering and pondering about how this could be.  Finally, Daniel thought he remembered that Timothy had taken it one time when he was there, and must have passed it on to Mr. Adams.  So one day he went by and picked it up, and of course, then I recognized the clock as my Daddy and Mama’s clock, but I still don’t remember Timothy taking it.  Maybe that was something Daniel did while I was away.  Anyhow, Daddy and Mama said they wanted us to just keep it since they didn’t think they a place for it exactly, and Daddy hated to have to remember to wind it, and somehow it became a part of “the collection” at Shady Acres.  We’ve needed to put some work in this one, too.  One of our clients pushed this one over one time, and it really wrecked it — broke the glass, bent the face, and made a terrible mess.  But it cleaned up nicely, got itself some new parts, and it is one of our more faithful clocks.

This clock is another very old, very strange clock.  One of the people who works with Daniel gave it to him after she rescued it from the junk pile when the family of her “Significant Other” was cleaning out their father’s house.  She dearly loved the old man, and could hardly bear to see what they were throwing out (including other clocks that looked alot like this one).  She was able to salvage this one that was missing its front bottom glass, and brought it to Daniel.  He took it to Mr. Adams and was delighted to find that it was really a treasure.  It has wooden gears in it, and it needs to be treated with tender loving care when it is wound.  (None of this “hurry up!” stuff with this old Sentinel)  There are many stories about this clock and they are incredibly interesting.  The shelf that it sits on was also rescued from among Daniel’s parents things when no one thought it was of any value.  Daniel brought it home one time when he had gone  to Ohio and I hadn’t.  “I thought you might want this for something,” he said to me.  I was sure that I would sometime or other, but hadn’t found anything specific until the day he came through the door with the clock. 

“Daniel!” I said, “We have the perfect shelf for that clock!” 

“What do you mean?” He asked, all puzzled like.

“That shelf from your folks!” I said.  “It will be perfect!” 

And it was.  We cleaned the shelf up, polished up the clock a bit. and put them together on the wall.  One of the things that is really special about this clock is that the label on the inside is especially clear (see next picture).  Some of you antique lovers and connoisseurs of such things might find this interesting.  I did look it up on the internet and it was a fascinating search.  But for Certain Man, it is another one of his “out of the ordinary” finds, and another grand story to tell about his collection of clocks.

There are a few other clocks that Certain Man owns that are not included in this little tour, but these were the easiest to photograph.  And of course, we have several of the electric/battery operated kinds around the house, but most of those are purely functional — Kitchen clock, alarm clocks, etc..  Certain Man has sometimes looked at beautiful clocks or gorgeous old specimans of clocks and the owner will say proudly, “I’ve switched the whole thing over to battery.  No need to wind this one.” and will be surprised when he instantly loses interest.  “If it doesn’t need to be wound,” he says repeatedly, “It isn’t a REAL CLOCK.”   Another thing he loves is the diversity of chimes.  “This is a “Bim-Bam,” he will say, or “This one strikes a single on the half and a double for each hour on the hour.”   “This one is a Westminster.” and so it goes. 

Hope you enjoyed my little tour of clocks.