Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:19 pm Post subject: The Clock.
Enjoyed your stories Sandie and I have written one or two myself which are all true.
Mine go back over my life and I have had many folk coming to me asking me to tell them more about the olden days.
This one was brought to the fore when my family got together and we were talking and giggling about things that had happened over the years.
I thought you too would get a smile from this true tale too............................................................................................
Cliff my hubby used to work shifts and as my lad was just coming up to 18 months old I did not go to work.
We lived in a three bedroomed house that belonged to the firm that Cliff worked for so it was what as known a tied house.
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 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 downstairs 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.
As we were not well off and only had the one alarm clock the clock was taken either upstairs or down depending what time of the day it was.
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 then bathed my baby and gave him his rusks and milk and 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 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 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****y 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 laughing 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 b****y clock.
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.
We were extremely poor when first married but that never bothered me as long as we had enough to eat and keep clean.
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.
I took it to the jewellers and got 30 bob for or £1/ 10s or £1-50p in todays currency.
I also bought a clock from the jewellers with the money I got from the sovereign and got 15 shillings knocked off the new clock because I had taken the sovereign there.
It saved the day.
Where there’s a will there’s a way so they say. _________________ If you cant say something nice then dont say anything at all.
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Wow! Strong stuff that ammonia! (Or was it the Jeyes Fluid?) 
