“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”
Last night was wonderful. First came the rumbles of thunder then the lightning. I went outside on the deck for a while and watched the sky being lit up by small jagged bolts. Every now and then a giant bolt of lightning would surprise me as it spread across the sky and lit the night. It rained, slowly at first then with a bit more intensity. I can always judge the amount of rain fall by Gracie. If she stays out, the rain isn’t much. If she runs in, it must be pouring.
Today is drier than it’s been so the air feels cooler without all the humidity. The breeze is ever so slight. I’m thinking the deck and a book will be perfect for today.
I learned to tell time when I was in the second grade. My aunt taught me. Later I found out why. That aunt, always and forever my favorite aunt, gave me a Cinderella watch for my first communion gift. I remember that watch perfectly. It had a light blue band and Cinderella, the face of my watch, was wearing a light blue gown. She was Princess Cinderella. I was thrilled with that gift and would make a big production of bending my elbow and raising my wrist to my face so I could check the time. I wanted my friends to notice my watch and be jealous.
I don’t wear a watch and haven’t for a long time. I have two of them, both gifts. The one I cherish was a 50th birthday gift from my mother. The watch is beautiful with a red band and silver decorations on it and around the watch, also silver. I wear it as an accessory sometimes, never as a timekeeper. The other watch was the proverbial thanks for your service here is a watch. It was a gift from the district when I retired. On its face is a promo for the district. I never wear that one.
When I travel, I generally bring a watch. I pin it to the inside of my bag. In the old backpacking days, I needed to know the time so I could catch a bus or a train. When I got to Ghana, I found out time there is relative. I needed a watch only to know when to teach. I always woke up early so an alarm wasn’t necessary and when I traveled, buses, other than those run by the country, leave when they’re full so a watch is a waste. It only made me impatient. Ghana has two time zones so to speak: European time and Ghanaian time. The first means the actual hour like be there at seven; the second means whenever you get there. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it makes life so much easier and far less hectic.
I’ll pin a watch to my bag this trip just as I did last year. I like to know the time when the roosters wake me up.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Cinderella watches, Ghana, learning to tell time, lightning, rain, roosters, time, travel, Watch, wearing a watch
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August 16, 2012 at 11:41 am
Cinderella was my first watch as well, and pretty much as you described it. It was a gift from my favorite aunt, your mother. Thanks for the memories! Love, Erin
August 16, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Erin,
That’s so funny-all those years later and we each got the same watch. My favorite was Aunt Mary, my father’s sister.
August 16, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Erin,
How funny, all those year’s later and we get the same type watch!
My favorite aunt was Aunt Mary, my father’s sister.
August 16, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Finally we got a nice bit of rain on Tuesday night and yesterday the high temperature was a cool 95 degrees. 🙂
I always wear a watch and time is always a very important part of my life. I look at my watch even when I am off from work and have nothing planned, I am driven to look at the clock during a TV show to see how much time is left until the end. I don’t know why, it’s just a habit. I own two watches. I have a dress watch that is a quartz movement which is not my daily timepiece. I bought a fake Rolex watch while in China, which has a self winding escapent movement, which I wear daily. It is surprisingly accurate for a cheep watch.
I don’t fly any more but I am always conscious of the passing time as if I am comparing my planned flight against my actual enroute progress. On my drive to and for work I check the time at various landmarks along the way to check my progress. I could not live in a place were people are not punctual and keep good track of the time. Right now it’s fifty five minutes unit lunch time, no wonder I am getting hungry.
August 16, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Bob,
I’m glad your weather has changed a bit and given you some relief. Did you run in the rain?
It is wearing a watch which makes you a slave to schedules and time tables and checking how much time until the program ends. Now that you don’t fly yourself, why is time so very important?
Since I retired, I am even less concerned about time. If I have an appointment, I make sure I leave so I’ll be on time: same with flights. If I’m meeting someone, I leave the house so I won’t be late. I consider being late discourteous, at least in our culture.
Ghana would drive you mad. If they tell you something will be ready tomorrow and you go, they’ll say “less tomorrow” which means another day, and that could go on for a few or more days. I always brought a book and sat in the shade waiting for the lorries to leave. I was cool and comfortable before what was always a long, uncomfortably slow ride to just about anywhere.
It is Ghana, and once I understood what that meant, I just went with the flow.
August 16, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Places like Ghana would drive me to drink, which might not be a bad idea in Ghana.
I have always had a fascination with watches. I have owned chronographs, but have never had the need to time anything that closely, but the idea that a mechanical device can keep time that accurately is amazing. Real watch name brands that are made to chronometer standards cost thousands of dollars and are way out of my price range. The quartz watches I have owned keep time to within a second a day and are powered by small batteries instead of main springs. Even the cheapest quartz watch keeps time better than an average windup watch. Kids today don’t wear watches because they have cell phones which are very accurate. Most people born in the last twenty-five years have probably never seen a watch which needs winding or that goes tick tock.
August 16, 2012 at 1:37 pm
We’ve had summer here again for a couple of days but it will soon end they say 🙂 I’m not surprised that it came back when I started working again 🙂 🙂
I learned how to tell time long before I learned to read. I think I was five years old when an old lady my mother worked for taught me the clock. I was amongst the few that could tell time when beginning school but one of the few that couldn’t read 🙂 🙂
I never wear a watch either. I stopped when working at Volvo, I was stressed enough as it was and looking at a watch all the time didn’t help 🙂 But now days I have my mobile phone with me all the time so I really don’t need a watch any longer.
Have a great day!
Christer.
August 16, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Christer,
I’m glad you can keep summer a bit longer! We’ll still in the himid time of the summer.
I was thrilled when I learned to tell time. I wanted everyone to ask me the time. If they didn’t ask, I’d offer!
A watch governs you. All the choices are made by time. I’d rather just meander!
August 16, 2012 at 2:39 pm
I love time pieces, I fuss over my 1820 wall clock, the vienna clock in my study, the carriage clock on the mantel. I regulate them, I enjoy them, their sound resonates throughout the house and if I am really clever they all strike, within the same minute.
I own four wrist watches. A weekend watch that I can knock around in, a Friday casual watch, a week watch, and, of course, my little square cased gold Omega watch that has given me such great service since the early 1970s. It didnt turn me in to Bryan Ferry but I had my moments albeit brief.
Maybe the Kat super secret play for the day could have been Coldplay’s “Clocks” ?
August 16, 2012 at 5:12 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Clocks in the house are just fine. I have an old Seth Thomas which once sat in a one room schoolhouse. I have another, a grandfather’s clock, passed down. They are treasures to me.
When I worked, I didn’t need a watch. The school was filled with clocks and there were bells which announced the time to change. They controlled all of us which is probably why I chose not to wear a watch anymore.
I din’t know of Coldplay’s song or I would have!!
August 16, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Hi Kat,
I don’t remember learning to tell time but I do remember trying to explain it to my cousin who was 18 months older and in the first grade at the time. (On the other hand, she could tie shoelaces and I couldn’t.)
I also don’t remember my first watch but I still have my graduation watch. It’s a Bulova and it has to be wound daily which I no longer do. I was wearing it in the barn one day and a horse came down with colic. In the course of helping the vet I plunged my hand into a bucket of water. The watch did not do well. It spent a month with its parts soaking in oil and having other mysterious things done so that it would work again.
Does one really need a watch nowadays? My car has a clock, my phone shows the time, both my Kindles show the time, the GPS shows the time. The only thing that doesn’t show the time and should is my cable box. 🙂
It’s warm and humid up here. Possible storms later on. Last night was lovely. I sat in the livingroom with the windows open and no tv and listened to rain bucketing down. Great!
Enjoy the rest of the day!
August 16, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Hi Caryn,
I remember learning how to tie my shoe as well. I was around four when my mother and I spent an afternoon tying my sneakers until I could do it myself. That was a proud moment though my bow was always loose.
You’re right about clocks being everywhere, especially on all the devices we carry. My house also has bunch of clocks. This room has the cable box, which does tell the time. The kitchen has the microwave and a wall clock plus one on the stove. They are all a minute or two apart.
It is warm and humid here s well. The morning was lovely and cool then the humidity hit, and I shut windows and doors and put on the AC.
August 16, 2012 at 4:14 pm
every watch i put on breaks. i have lots of em. from charlie the
tune to dale evans, plus a few regular ones thrown in. all
broken. luckily my cell phone keep pretty good time. provided i charge it,,,
August 16, 2012 at 5:21 pm
greg,
I’m jealous of your Dale Evans!
A wrist seems an iffy place for a watch anyway. It moves a lot which makes breaking a watch easy to do.
I’m always forgetting to charge my phone!
August 16, 2012 at 8:09 pm
Bob,
Ghana is a wonderful country of beautiful, friendly people which happens to run by its own beat. After a bit, though, I was just fine with that. It was great knowing that the rush of this world was behind me for a while. I think most of us felt that way living in Ghana.
I remember my wind up watches. I often bought a Timex because they ran well and were relatively inexpensive.
I don’t think I want my life run by the time on a watch. I like making my own hours. I had no problem settling right into that when i went to Ghana last summer.