Living by the clock
After listening to a friendly discussion about the merits of being punctual I decided to take a few moments and reflect upon how my life has been ruled by the clock. For starters, I grew up in a railroading family. Every employee with a job of any importance carried a watch. An accurate watch. Each time you went into a station you checked your watch against the clock on the premises and you initialed an entry in a ledger that you had done so. The clock in the station received a Standard Time check from further up the line every day. The worst thing that can happen on a rail line is that two trains are in the same place at the same time and so the clock was always right. It carried over into real life schools, they started and finished at a given scheduled time. We even had the angelus bell to let us know when we could have lunch but that’s a whole other story. If you wanted to watch TV you had better know the when of a program otherwise you were out of luck. In sharp contrast for those living on the farm you received subtle signs that it was time to do things. The rooster crowing is a perfect case. If you were out to sea you depended on the tide. That tide times and daylight were on a changeable schedule would have driven me completely bonkers if that’s how my life had been controlled but that was not me. Instead I ended up choosing a lifestyle where there were clocks all around me and where even the times the bus would go by was important. I did not make the schedule but rather I lived by it. One soon realizes that not everyone has the same appreciation of punctuality. No sense fighting about such things but you can always provide example and the time check.
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