The Mantle Clock

A few weeks ago I wrote about things I had inherited from my Great Aunt Minnie. I have a few things left to 'show and tell'. The next thing I have inherited and loved, is a mantle clock. Aunt Minnie had two or three, so my brother and I each got one. My clock was made by the Ingraham Clock Company, and I think was made in the 1930's, when Aunt Minnie purchased it new. This clock always sat upstairs at her house, on a bureau on the landing, so that you could hear it chiming the time at night. It is a simple 8-day winding clock, that strikes the hours. It has a lovely case (I don't know what wood the case is made from) and a very nice 'face' with easy to read numerals.

During one of my parent's moves, the winding keys were lost. When they gave the clock to me after my marriage, we went to a clock repair shop in Seattle looking for keys. There were two original keys, one with a large hole for winding the clock and a smaller one for adjusting the loudness of the chime and the speed of the clock. The shop proprietor had a bowl full of old keys, and we looked through them until finding the one below:

Some ingenious person in the past had welded the two keys together into one two-sided key, just what we needed! It always stays behind the clock on my living room mantel now, and we have managed to keep track of it during all our moves in the last 38 years.

Julie has favored this clock, and remembers it fondly from her childhood. Someday it will be passed along to her.

We have a wonderful clock shop close by in Sisters, Oregon. After the death of my mother in 2000, we had a small estate sale. I decided to get something special to remember her by with the proceeds. We went to Sisters, where I picked out this lovely pendulum grandmother wall clock. It is a millennium edition, and has a beautiful walnut case.

I love my mantel clock, but always wished for one that played the Westminster Chimes. Now I have one, and it chimes the quarter, half and full hours. My oldest grandson Samuel especially likes hearing the chiming clock at Grammy's house.

We are leaving tomorrow for a true 'Spring Break'. We will be visiting the Rhododendron Gardens in Portland, the Lilac Gardens in Woodland and the tulip farm outside Woodland. My daughter Joy assures us that all are at their peak, so it should be glorious. We are taking a couple of friends with us, and I will show some photos next week when we return.