An Alarm Clock, An Uncle

Once upon a time, and now you will know I am really older than Methusalah, my kind bachelor-uncle arrived nightly to wind our family’s clocks.

Of course that was during the years when most families, like ours, had an alarm clock in every room to awaken us daily for work, school and the day’s responsibilities.

Obviously, there really was no need for Mom’s older brother, Uncle Bill, to assume responsibility for this chore.

Both my parents were quite capable of maintaining our household routine efficiently.

It was decades after I had moved away before I comprehended that their hospitality, or what could be considered invasion of privacy, was actually a token of kindness for a lonely bachelor.

I eventually understood that winding our clocks merely provided an excuse for this secluded gentleman to visit our overcrowded, but joyous, home nightly.

Then during the years that passed, oh so quickly, both Uncle Bill’s and my family’s world changed rapidly.

The digital world soon changed everyone’s life, and winding a clock became an obsolete memory.

Until this week

I use the alarm on my Smartphone nightly to alert me to another day. As I prepared to go to bed last night, I remembered it had not been charged.

Earlier in evening in an attempt to unravel formatting issues with a new ms, I contacted Apple Support for assistance. As we were speaking, I realized I had not recharged my MacAir before scheduling the call.

I routinely bring my Kindle with me if I have a dental appointment and find myself for any length of time sitting in a waiting room. Yesterday in the midst of Chapter 12 of a new best seller, my device went dark., and I ended up perusing some very dated magazines.

That’s when I remembered Uncle Bill.

I thought if this kind gentleman was still in our world , he would still have an excuse for a nightly visit.

He would be certain my MacAir, my two IPads, my Kindle and my cell phone had been prepared for the next day.

And I realized our world hasn’t really changed so much, just its facade.