"The Cuckoo Clock"
By Ron Stultz
15 February 2011
When my Dad's brother, Olin, was United States Air Force stationed in Europe in the mid to late 1950's, he traveled Europe a good bit and when he came home, he brought each of this 3 brothers and his father, a German black forest cuckoo clock. I had never seen or heard one of these clocks before and it obviously mean something special to all my uncles and grandfather. The clocks almost seem to have some sort of genetic connection, "Stultz", my family name, having some German descent.
Not "the" clock but it looked like this
Now I am not sure right now how long my Dad owned the clock before it began to malfunction in someway. I can not remember if the weights would not keep the clock running or that the cuckoo, who was supposed to come out of his or her nest at the top of the clock and do the cuckoo routine 3 times on the hour stopped working but suddenly, one evening, our kitchen table was full of disassembled cuckoo clock parts: gears, levers, springs, screws, chain and small nails.
After disassemble, the "problem" was clearly announced and my Dad proceeded to reassemble the clock.
And then, disassemble it all over again.
Assembly, disassembly, continued over and over again for several evenings until the inevitable occurred as it always does on something like this. The more assembles and disassembles that are done to the same "machine" in rapid fashion, the chances of something going wrong increases significantly. Now in the case of my Dad and his cuckoo clock, it easily could have been a broken spring or broken wooden lever or perhaps a lost gear or screw or lots and lots of things.
Finally, one evening, the cuckoo clock was gone from the table and I never saw it again. I suspect when his frustration got the better of him, he just packaged it all up and stuck it in some corner of the house. My parents liked to hold onto anything and everything, even broken cuckoo clocks. A side bar here but wonder now where that clock is? And wondering who inherited the extra fancy cuckoo clock my grandfather received? Do many families have a busted cuckoo clock in a box in their basement or attic?
Wondering........if sooner or later it is inevitable that the "repair man" in many men, will run into my Dad's cuckoo clock. Oh not in the form of a cuckoo clock but something else. There will be just too many gears, levers, screws, strange design, corrupted DLL and other that will result in disassembly, assembly and disassembly over and over again until some critical component is lost or damaged or frustration just puts an end to the whole thing.
Perhaps every "repair man" needs a "cuckoo clock" now and again to keep his pride in check?
At almost 65 years of age, I have only experienced one "cuckoo clock" in my life and it was extremely frustrating and left a "failure" stain on my soul. When a "cuckoo clock failure" occurs, one wonders why one would even think he or she could repair the magic of a German Black Forest cuckoo clock?
Below is the current state of an HP laptop repair. Lots and Lots of parts that are tightly packed.
Could this be another "cuckoo clock" for me?