Tick Tock

Today's Wonder of the World is the Old Fashioned Alarm Clock!
Woo Hoo!

Isn't this one pretty?
I bought it at a flea market soon after we got to France, for the equivalent of only a couple dollars. I brought it home, stared at it, and felt happy inside. It doesn't work, but I don't care. I bought it for looks, not brains.

The next weekend, I bought another.

It was a fun thing to shop for. I set a five dollar limit and had a great time searching them out.
Soon the clocks became an addiction.

Every now and then when I went flea marketing I'd find one and take it home, clean it up, and then gaze at it, dreaming up what kind of person might have wound that clock each night. I'd imagine her sitting on her bed, taking off her slippers, talking to her husband about the day's events. I'd see her opening her eyes in the morning and looking at the clock, smelling the bread baking at the boulangerie across the street, or listening to ticking along with the coos of the baby in the bassinet.
The clocks are great story prompters.

You might not believe this, but one of the clocks actually works! What a concept! I thought about using it. But in the end I'm afraid that this ugly thing won out instead.

Sorry radio alarm clock. I didn't mean to call you ugly. You have nice big numbers that I can see without my glasses in the middle of the night. And you are trustworthy. With three kids to chase off to school in the mornings, I need a clock that's dependable.
(By the way, I just noticed I have a copy of Pippi in the South Seas on my night table. That is Sherri's (at Life as I live it) fault, and I'm so thankful to her! After the blog post I did on the French scrubbing shoes, she reminded me that Pippi did her floors the same way! So Sam and I are reading it together. Thanks, Sherri!)

Speaking of Sam, he thinks my clocks are kind of crazy, but he appreciates their beauty too.
Here's a drawing he did of one of them when he was four or five. I kept it because I love it.

There are an awful lot of hours on that clock. Some days I could use a few extra.
All this talk of clocks reminds me of a song that I used to play over and over and over again on the piano when I was Sam's age. Maybe you know it, My Grandfather's Clock?
I looked up the lyrics, and you won't believe the crazy wonderful thing I found.
But first, skim the first verse real quick.

My grandfather's clock
Was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half
Than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn
Of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.

Okay, do you recognize this ditty yet?
Maybe you need to hear it. Have I got a youtube for you: Listen to a man playing the song on THE SLIDE RADISH!
Yes! That's what I said! An instrument made of a giant radish! (I wonder if he plays asparagus?)

It's probably THE CRAZIEST YOUTUBE VIDEO I'VE EVER SEEN!
It's a Wonder of the World in itself!
Please promise you'll watch it all the way to the music.
It's a Perfect Ten on the Weird Meter!

Oh, and don't forget to enter the drawing for the French postcards. Just leave your name on yesterday's (Monday's) post. Come on, don't be shy!

Enjoy the musical radish! Tick tock!