Project Description
This was my first grandfather clock – a project for a class I took over 30 years ago at a JC in Costa Mesa. Some of the Honduras was rescued from the house of Mrs. White – a widow who was forced to sell her beach-front dream home overlooking the Pacific because she was unable to pay the inheritance tax. The new owners we’re going to bulldoze this tasteful, well-planned home containing swamp cypress flooring and mahogany pocket doors opening out on a lawn with a 180 degree view of the sea, in order to build a two-story monster that looked like a hotel.
So at least to preserve a little of what meant so much to Mrs. White, some of her mahogany would live on in this clock. When it was finished we invited Mrs. White over for the unveiling. We removed the sheet and there stood the clock with some of what had once been her kitchen counters in it. She had tears in her eyes. And nothing else could have been more rewarding for me (Nothing like making a widow cry!)
The guy that taught that class always wore Bermuda shorts to try and disguise how wide his backside looked in long pants. His comment on the clock: “well, there’s the clock that could pull trains.” His mantra was that novice woodworkers always made things too heavy. After I finished two semesters with him I finished the clock at home. I sent him a picture of it and was told by the students still attending that he had posted the photo on the bulletin-board and bragged about what could be done in his classes.
