Chapter 9 - The Clock

Discussion in 'Reading & Writing' started by Maisie Walker, Apr 17, 2018.

  1. Maisie Walker

    Maisie Walker Very Well-Known Member
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    Chapter 9.

    The Clock

    This is a tale of something that happened in 1952 just after the children had gone. As I said previously we were NOT very well off in the money department so I could only afford one alarm clock which was taken up and downstairs each night so that my hubby had an alarm to wake him if he was on early shift.
    We couldn't even afford a watch.
    Not that I could wear one anyway because I am allergic to any sort of metal, even gold. Hubby did buy me engagement and wedding rings but I had to cease wearing them when my wedding ring had to be prised off my finger after my finger had swollen up three times its size. Photo below of my ring set against a new one in later years but I still could not wear the new one without my finger swelling. Anyway to get back to the tale.

    My son was old enough to sleep in his own bedroom and I used to take his potty upstairs every night. He always used it before going to bed and I made a habit of waking him at about 2a.m to sit him on his potty so that he would not wet the bed.
    Unfortunately this particular time my son had caught a chill and this made my little boy who was in the last throes of teething to wet his bed and the resulting smell of ammonia was overpowering. I changed him and the bed and settled him down to sleep again for a couple of hours before I got him up.
    I went down and got the washing done and cleaned all my downstairs while my toddler was still fast asleep.

    I had got a big fire going
    to warm the room for him before I went to get him up. NO central heating in those far off days.
    Cliff had been at work since 6am and it was now 10am.

    I went upstairs with “Prince” the dog following at my heels to carry my lad downstairs. I did not want to go upstairs too many times so I carried as much stuff as I could and this meant carrying the potty, plus the clock and also carry my baby down winding stairs.

    I got out of the bedroom and “Prince” decided to walk between my legs which in turn made me drop the clock into the potty.
    Oh My Gawd! what a tata as I managed to get down the stairs and put the baby down in his high chair.

    I flew out into the kitchen to get a cloth to retrieve the clock out of the piddle.
    The smell was atrocious and I got the Jeyes Fluid and put some in the bucket to soak a floor cloth in it to wipe the clock.
    After a while I decide it was OK and after wiping it dry I put the clock
    back on the mantlepiece over the fire.
    I washed my hands well and I then bathed my baby and gave him his rusk’s and milk. By this time it was getting on for 11am.

    Cliff used to pop home for half an hour on his break at 11-30am until 12 noon for a cup of tea and a snack then he used to go back to work for another four hours.
    Cliff duly came in to have a snack and a cup of tea and he said " What ever can I smell Maisie? Its taking my breath away ”
    I said I had no idea but I knew what he meant because I could smell it too.

    It was the clock drying out.
    The heat was making the ammonia come to the fore and My God it was ruddy awful.
    It wasn’t too bad when I first put the clock on the shelf because it still had the smell of Jeyes Fluid on it and I loved the smell of that.
    Deep down inside of me I was hoping that the smell would gradually fade but I knew that it was hopeless.

    A few minutes went by and I noticed hubby staring at the clock as though mesmerised by it with his sandwich suspended halfway between his mouth and mid air as though he had been turned to lead.

    I asked him if he was alright and he said with very much incredulity “ I cant believe what I am seeing with that clock because the minute hand has shrivelled up and dropped off.!!!!!!! LOOK there goes the big hand curling up at the edges.”
    Sure enough as I looked a the clock the No1 also dropped off.
    Hubby went to it and said to me. “ The b***dy smell is coming from the clock and something has got into it making the numbers drop off. ”
    I had to confess then that I had dropped it in the potty face first and I had tried to wipe it well before putting it on the mantlepiece to dry out.
    It was the ammonia that we could smell from my lad’s water that had seeped into the face of the clock and was bringing the hands and numbers off as it dried out.
    Cliff did no more than pick the clock up and say “There’s only one place for that b****r and that’s in the dustbin.”

    I was by this time hysterical with laughter while Cliff was stamping about like a bull in a china shop while washing his hands ranting and raving about how we were going to get another one with money SO tight.

    It made my mirth worse to see hubby going bananas over a ruddy clock although I knew he had to have one to get him up for early shifts.

    He went to work in a very sombre and sour mood but I still kept tittering about it.
    I put my thinking cap on working out how I was going to get the money for another clock because it was essential Cliff had one to get up for work each morning at 5am.
    It had entered my head to pawn my engagement ring if I could think of nothing else.

    I did get another clock by the time Cliff came home though because we had a gold half sovereign that was in the drawer that Cliff found some years previously.
    It was never claimed after he reported it at the Police Station.
    It became his property after about six months I believe it was and he said at the time we would keep it but IF we were in very dire straits anytime it could be valued to see what it would fetch moneywise.
    I took it to the jewellers and got 30 bob for or £1/ 10s or £1-50p in today’s currency.
    I also bought a clock from the jewellers with some of the money I got from the sovereign and got something knocked off the price of the new clock because I had taken the sovereign there.
    The clock should have been £1/10s but I only paid 15shillings for it so I finished up in pocket.
    It saved the day.
    Cliff did not mind because he too had forgotten about it but it would have come in handy if I had thought about it when the children lived with us. Looking back maybe it was MEANT to be forgotten when the children lived with us. Life can work in mysterious ways at times.
    Where there’s a will there’s a way so they say.
     

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  2. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    I thought I'd burst reading that - so funny the way you put it :p
    I'm just glad you didn't go down them stairs 3 at a time !
    Such a shame about your ring too, still - you have it that's the main thing
     
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  3. Maisie Walker

    Maisie Walker Very Well-Known Member
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    Yes it was hilarious at the time to me Patsy but NOT to hubby. He was smiling though once he knew he had a new clock with an alarm. I never tried carrying everything all at once down the stairs again though. :p
     
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  4. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    A lesson leant there Maisie :p
     
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  5. Maisie Walker

    Maisie Walker Very Well-Known Member
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    Albeit a smelly one. :D
     
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  6. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Ha ha - yea :p
     
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