Timeless Time

This lovely old clock is my only heirloom. It is a link through time to my father and his father -- who probably brought it out from Ireland. Not sure how old it is, but that journey to Australia was made in 1864.

It has witnesed so many things as key family events occurred -- deaths, births, and family celebrations. It has been on many different mantel-pieces. I search its face for my own memories and memories of those who looked at it before me, and find many memories there, in time itself.

Who remembers the era when, whenever we needed to know the time, we rushed into look at 'the clock'. This was that clock we consulted so often. No digital time winking at us from every appliance then. Our family had one other clock -- an alarm clock with a shrill bell alarm. It didn't command quite the same authority, and had nothing like the dignity. It was useful, but 'common'.

I have memories of playing football with a cushion in our lounge room, at about the age of 10, and bringing this old clock down with a crash. It was like bringing the world to an end. Time stopped. My gentle father reprimanded me and sent me to bed. I was glad to see it back on the mantle piece, repaired, a week later. The right order of the world had been restored. I had no idea what it meant to him then. Now I realise what a link it was -- and is.

It still goes, and still strikes on the hour and half-hour, but needs adjusting.