The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-05-01
MEN AND CLOCKS
By NINA LESLIE CALLEJA

AAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA
loverripe age, / have far too much
sense to keep a man waiting even
five minutes, but ii those days
Il was young, men were plentiful,
and time didn't matter.
II didn't take long for the
clock to get out Of whacl, and the
donor himself was the first one
| to work on it, After his minis-
trations it gained approximately
three hours every twelve hours,
ibut / never told him about this
small lnaladjustment.
| Ny first husband was the next
| man to undertake its repair,
after which the clock worked
perfectly, except for the fact that
lit ran backwards. and therefore
Twas somewhat confusing, giving
lme the impression Of living il a
| sort Of fourth dimension. 50 !
Iput it away. together with the
Ismal1. bag Of parts that had accu-
lmulated as residue from the two
repair jobs, and forgot about it.
| Some years later, when I was
4 widow, was unpacking some
boxes and came upon the clock.
| @This goes out" / said to the
tyoung man who was ostensibly
lhe1ping me unpack, but who IN
realty was hampering me dread
fully, manifestation. He pounced
upon the clock greedily. Throw
| out this nice clock?", he demand
| ed. Don't do that. What's wrong
with it?' at won't work." / re-
Iplied.
j Then I'll fix it so it will
work" he promised, and carted
/ it off with him. Two weeks later
he brought it back, and saw
with surprise that it WAS work
| ing and in the right direction, at
that. That is, the one remaining
,hand was moving in the proper
direction.
1.-THE second hand got broken"
/ he explained alphabetically. But
|you can tell about what time it
| is by the hour hand. See? When
lit is one quarter past the hour
the hand will be about here. See?
| At half past it will be about
here. See? And at a quarter of it
Twill have moved, to about here
! and then on to the exact hour.
lSee? When have time I'll put a
| second hand on it for you" l
| assured him that / saw, and need
| / add that he never put that Sec
Iond hand on that clock? 4
i Some time later an Italian
! count, whose claim to his title
II never could quite find was
| spurious or legitimate, saw the
clock, asked why it had only one
hand on it, and volunteered to
not only put on the missing hand,
but give the entire clock gen.
eral cleaning and overhauling. He
assured me that he was not only
! an expert with clocks, but also a
! crack rifle shot, and this infor-
nation SO impressed me that
| turned over the clock to him
very willingly indeed.
i Several weeks later he return
ed it, and angrily said someone
had messed up its interior, and
he couldn't do more with it than
put on a second hand. I had a
| strong suspicion that he was the
one who had damaged the inte-
| rior, because meantime I had Wis
tied shooting gallery with him
and it had developed that was
| a better rifle shot than he was,
for all his boasting, and I had
rightly figured that if he wasn't
| any better as a clock repairer
than he was as rifle shooter
there wasn't much hope to be
held out for that clock.
i My second husband had his
turn at the clock at due time. I
had made another, attempt to
throw it away, but he stayed my
hand. The idea, he said indig-
nantly, of throwing out a hand
some clock just because it needed
| a few minor repairs, Still indig-
nant, he went to work on it.
+! Upon the completion of his eff
forts it licked away loudly, but
i only if I let it lie face down. If
you wanted to see the time you
had to pick it up fast, give it a
lightning glance and replace it
face down quickly. If the opera
ton required more than a split
second it would stop suddenly
and then sullenly refuse to start
again unless shaken vigorously
and vigorously. One day shortly
afterward it gave an angry whirr
and stopped altogether. 1 put it
away again.
! Three years ago l met "a nice
French naval officer, and he
wasn't any different from any,
one else, because the minute he
laid eyes on that clock he be-
came possessed of a frantic de-
sire to undertake its repair. I
handed it over to him, figuring
that ha co,lldp't do ON, rooro