Watch Repair

Ever have a moment when out of the blue something occurs that triggers a memory from something that happened years ago? When we get older and forget something people call it a 'senior moment.' I wonder what you would call a remembrance from yesteryear? A flash back? A brought forward? The funny thing is that when the event happened years ago it was forgotten. When it was remembered years later it is never forgotten. Fascinating on how our minds work.

As a young man of 8 or 9, I found that I could fix things. I had an ability to figure out how broken things worked and in a lot of cases was able to make necessary repairs to get the item in question to work. For instance, my Grandmother had this old wind up alarm clock that quit working so she gave it to me to play with. So, using a few tools that I had, I took the clock apart. I found that the clock had been wound to tightly causing the main spring to slip out of the groves designed to hold the spring in place. I was able to replace the spring into the proper groves, put it back together and it started ticking. I gave the clock back to my Grandmother who was careful not to wind it too tightly and the clock lasted another several years. There are a few other examples that I could mention however it is not necessary to get to the point of this story.

Someone, I don't remember who, gave to me a stop watch. I thought this watch was pretty neat as I could use it to time different things like how fast my friends could run or how long it would take a car to pass a certain point. It was a toy that I enjoyed playing with until one day it quit working. So, being successful in repairing my Grandmothers clock, I proceeded to tear apart this stopwatch to fix it. What I discovered was that there was a big difference in the size of the parts that was designed for the stopwatch than what I worked with in the alarm clock. As much as I tried I could not figure out how to fix the stopwatch nor was I able to get all the pieces back into their proper places so, like so many other things that outgrow their usefulness, the stopwatch ended up thrown into a drawer never to be seen again.

Twenty some years later I was at a Nascar race at the old Ontario Raceway just outside of Los Angeles, Ca. I was using a stopwatch to time my favorite driver (Richard Petty) as I was cheering for him to work his way back to the front of the field. At some point during the race my stopwatch quit working so standing their watching the race I started to wind up my stopwatch when suddenly my mind flashed back to my childhood and the stopwatch that I used to play with at that time and a sudden realization washed over me as to what was wrong with my earlier stopwatch. I started laughing at my stupidity in not understanding then what the problem was with that watch -- it needed winding.

Interesting as how an adult can do so simple a thing without giving it much thought but for a child it is a thought provoking process designed to teach the mind to work. Also interesting that as an adult we have a tendency to ignore this process in favor of just getting it done thereby losing that ability. As an elder adult of 62 years, I am determined not to let that happen to me. My earthly motto: The day you quit learning is the day you die.