On Thursday, July 24, 1975 my brother chopped up my musical clock while mowing the lawn. In his defense, our grass did get pretty tall between cuttings; a well manicured lawn was not a priority on our dairy farm, and truthfully, whoever had the clock last was more to blame.

Before surmising that I have a freakishly powerful memory, please understand that my mother made daily journal entries for most of her life. It’s become a great fact-checking resource over the years plus great reading, even if you aren’t a relative. On the day following the musical clock incident we were traveling in a car that was low on gas and we ran out at the top of the last hill and coasted home.

I was pretty sad about the clock.  Although it only played the old 1876 tune “Grandfather’s Clock” over & over, I knew most of the song and would karaoke while other family members added the harmony.

 “…it stopped, short, never to go again when the old man died”.

It takes quite a bit to impress an eight year old these days, but back then I was  simply quite amazed that my chipped up clock continued to work.  The dial in the back was still intact and the wound up clock still made music though it wasn’t visually appealing.  I thought Fisher Price should know.  Besides, I heard stories of other children who wrote letters to companies and in turn received free things and was inspired.  My mother helped me write a letter to Fisher Price and I bragged about how my battered clock still functioned and how this toy must be very well made.  I made sure to add how sad I was that this unfortunate event occurred.

When mail addressed to me from Fisher Price arrived several weeks later, the envelope only contained  a thank you letter, and sadly, no coupon for another toy clock though I purchased one years later at an antique market for memory’s sake.

Our next scheduled show is the Krüger Brothers at 7:00 pm on a Sunday evening, April 7th.  Many artists have covered “Grandfather’s Clock” including the great Doc Watson.  Here is The Krüger Brothers’ version.  We hope you can join us for this special house concert in the spring.