You can't turn back the clock but you can wind it up again

So ... my family always does the gift thing at the holidays, and this year, I received something really special. But it wasn't a Christmas gift. It was a family heirloom that has made its way down to me.

In the early 1900s, my great-grandfather Alonzo purchased a second-hand mantle clock for his wife to commemorate the birth of a child, my grandfather. Everyone loved and wanted that clock, but Alonzo made sure it went to his favorite grandchild a few years before his death; that grandchild is my mother.

Now she has given the clock to me. I've always loved it. I once wrote a paper about it for English class, speculating on what the world was like back when that clock was new.

It is an oak clock with brass movement and a gold-patterned glass door. There is supposed to be an hourly strike on a coil gong and a single strike on each half-hour, although the clock isn't in complete working order. I think I can get it repaired though.

I've attached a photo of a very similar clock (same brand, same series, same date).

It is nice to have something that has survived four generations of my family and was originally owned by great-grandparents that I never got the chance to meet.