[stylist] Fw: June 12, The ShellBell Report

[Shelley J. Alongi]

Shelley J. Alongi 
Home Office: (714)869-3207
**
To read essays on my journey through the Chatsworth train accident, Metrolink 111 or other interests click on http://www.storymania.com/cgibin/sm2/smshowauthorbox.cgi?page=&author=AlongiSJ&alpha=A

updated May 9, 2009
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Shelley J. Alongi 
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 11:12 PM
Subject: June 12, The ShellBell Report


timeless Deals 

What is it about a simple, chiming mantle clock that could make me call a taxi from work, drop by a clock shop and then take that same cab home, encurring a cost of $50 in cab fair? You would think that in this economy one would be careful about spending $50 anywhere. You would think so, and you would be right. But everyone makes decisions about where to spend money and to me on this cool June gloomy day, getting to the clock shop after work was a task endowed with the utmost importance. 

The Howard Miller clock, with the year "1976" emblazened on the back of it was one of those treasured items that I took from my mother's collection after her death nine years ago. It sat dusty and abandoned on a table in the back bedroom of my parent's house, for I don't know how long. Discovering the clock made me remember many wonderful hours of reading and practicing piano with that clock emitting it's soft chiming sound every fifteen minutes to remind me of peace, tranquility, and the passage of time. The passage of time didn't seem to be as important as the peace and tranquility, the feelign that all was right with the world. 

As years went by I moved away and pursued my own dreams and schemes, leaving the clock.  Suddenly in the following days after her death, discovering the clock and remembering, I knew i had to have it. The clock found it's way onto a shelf in my apartment, and ocasionally got wound up, but was in bad need of adjustments. Finally, years later, after all the trials and triumphs of my own adventures, it was time to take the clock down to the shop and have it fixed. The cats gave me a reason to fix it. Nine months ago when I moved to the 2 bedroom apartment they somehow managed to knock the clock off the shelf, damaging the top, thus making it even more important to fix it.

A sudden and unexpected financial windfall (another story for another time) allowed me finally, a month ago, to take the clock down to the shop and have it fixed. So it was with a great deal of anticipation that I went down to the clock shop on Impirial Highway and picked up my newly restored clock. 

It would seem then that the clock has come full circle. It now sits on the same piano, in my apartment, chiming its way through the day and night, always reminding me of those peaceful years of childhood. It also now sadly reminds me that the friend who took the clock to the shop for me recently fell on some hard times and so everytime it chimes I remember to think of her. The clock, then, once residing on another shelf has taken a journey through one house and into the other, not simply being a time piece or a piece of brickabrack on someone's piano. It holds many memories and is sure to hold many more as time passes.

So as I prepare for bed this evening, that clock will pass away the moments, reminding me each time it chimes of the enduring, timeless qualities of happy memories.

And if you think thismight be sentimental, you could be right, but it was also half the price of a new clock to fix the old one, so really I got two deals: a wise investment of my money and the restoration of osmething important to me from childhood. 

Eventually I'll probably get that new clock, I've had my eye on one for over a year, but for here and for now, it is enough. 

Till we meet again, in person or online, have a great day an dkeep dreaming! 

Shelley, Pearl and Brandy 
  
Shelley J. Alongi 
Home Office: (714)869-3207
**
To read essays on my journey through the Chatsworth train accident, Metrolink 111 or other interests click on http://www.storymania.com/cgibin/sm2/smshowauthorbox.cgi?page=&author=AlongiSJ&alpha=A

updated May 9, 2009