Jun 18 2011
Unveiling
Yesterday, Rob and I (well, mostly Rob) finally took the grandfather clock out of its box.
It was the first time the grand old timepiece had seen the light of day since I sold my apartment in San Francisco nearly six years ago. There was no room for it in my tiny Oakland house, so it languished in Mom’s storage unit in Santa Rosa until the long and fateful day when my brother and I finally emptied it out.
I couldn’t find a place in my present place, either, so it stayed in the Box that Rob Built. When Rob makes something, he does it right. He made the case out of several pieces of wood, which he transported on the bus to my apartment. My brother thought the case was too big, but he reckoned without the styrofoam and bubble wrap Rob was planning to use to cushion the ancient clock within its case. Always trust the Rob.
While driving to the jobette one day, it occurred to me that perhaps I could put the clock beside the staircase. Now that I no longer have a bathtub, the seemingly endless drives to Charlottesville and back seem to be my best place for thinking, even though driving itself uses up both of my brain cells.
I suggested the idea to Rob, who thought it just might work. He came over yesterday morning, bearing a huge basket of laundry, and while I dealt with the clothes, he dealt with the clock.
It took him quite a while to unscrew the many screws holding the box together, even with an electric thing to do it with. Then he carefully removed the front of the case, revealing the clock’s face:
Here it is, still in its case. Rob remarked that he probably won’t end up in as nice a box as this, and he’s probably right:
Here it is in place, finials (oddly untarnished) and all:
Somehow, it seems appropriate that we set it up on the weekend of Father’s Day, since the clock has been in Dad’s family (on his mother’s side) since it was first made, in the mid to late 1770s. It is probably older than the country it now lives in. It was made by John Jullion of Brentford, England, who also made what is the oldest clock on public display in Australia. That clock was made in 1770, the year that Captain Cook landed at Kurnell. It now resides in Cronulla’s clock tower.