Modern Tradition

My first entry!

Actually, it's my second try at my first entry, as my first was mysteriously deleted. Frustrated might be an understatement. Anyway, this is my family's new cuckoo clock. Purchased at a special store in Cambria, California, this work of art has a traditional look but with a very modern twist. A cuckoo clock is typically pendulum-driven, with weighted chains that are required to be reset at specific times to keep the clock running. Our new cuckoo is quartz battery-powered. (Technology never ceases to amaze me.) As on traditional cuckoo clocks, the cuckoo bird emerges from its enclosure. It moves up and down, and flaps its wings as it calls, but instead of the call being reproduced by the classic chirps, the call is a digital recording of a cuckoo calling in the wild. The cuckoo call is usually accompanied by the sound of a water fall and other echoing birds calling in the background.

Our original cuckoo clock was given as a gift to my grandparents over thirty years ago. It was made in west Germany well before German reunification. I remember waking up early as a little girl to watch my Papa reset the chains each morning precisely at six o'clock. After they passed, my dad got the heirloom and hung it on our living room wall for family and friends to enjoy. Recently, our old clock had been having troubles keeping time. Any sort of disturbance in the air would stop the pendulum and turn the clock off. So, out with the old (into storage, not the trash!) and in with the new... We'll see if this clock can fill the shoes of its senior.