50 States Day 168

  50 States, Day 168 Southington, Waterbury, Bristol. 43 Miles

"Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon."

~Anonymous

What's Connecticut famous for? Insurance of course, but we elected to go to a couple of clock museums. I could just see the insurance museum:

"This is a photo of Maury Muggeridge (points to a statue of a little weasely guy with greased back hair, wearing a suit), our best employee from 1982 until 2004. He specialized in Denial of Claims. No one could deny more eloquently and keep his cool, even if the voice on the phone is cursing him out."

Clocks on the other hand, never deny coverage. 

The Timexpo Museum took us back to the 1800's, the beginnings of Timex watches. The journey from Ingersall to Timex wound and twisted, but we ended up with Timex. The 60's television commercials rocked! A horse with a Timex watch on his forelock, jumps thirty feet into a pool of water. The watch 'takes a licking and keeps on ticking.' A watch. Ask your father. Okay, ask your grandfather. 

Another commercial features a Timex strapped to a downhill ski racer's ski while shushing down the slopes, and it's fine. Then they strapped one to the prop of an outboard motor. And onto the tire of a swamp buggy. Great stuff.

The watch industry closed down for WWII, but the company built timers for bombs and kept really busy.

Mickey Mouse rescued them in the fifties when they marketed character watches. What they didn't tell us was what pieces of junk those Mickey Mouse watches were. They hardly ran past the parking lot. Hence the term, 'Mickey Mouse' referred to junky stuff.

From out of nowhere they had a half floor dedicated to Easter Island, Thor Heyerdahl and the theory of man getting there on rafts. Huh? Beats me too. Another section addressed ancient mounds in America. FYI, there are over ten thousand. But what those have to do with clocks, I have no idea. 

Another room featured the possible clocks of 2154. Like one you stick on your thumbnail. That's thinking outside the... wrist.

We rode to Bristol next and got lost - no, we took a tour around the city, enjoying the side streets and found- that is, got to the Clock Museum.

This place doesn't reflect any branding, just dedicated to horology. It was a new word for me too. I studied the works of clocks and have a little better idea of how they work. Amazing that older clocks had works made of wood. When brass came into vogue, the clocks became more dependable and accurate. 

As time passed, clocks morphed from utilitarian products for railroads to a tool for common people, to fashion statements and room decoration. some interesting clocks include;

Hickory Dickory Dock clocks. Every hour the mouse goes up until it hits one, then goes to the bottom and starts over. Cute. 

A military time clock that reads Roman numerals the first time around, then switches to twenty- four hour by rotating the numbers.

Another clock tells the time, but other faces give the date and the month. I have no idea how it switches from September 30 to October 1st. Does it just jump past 31? 

Funny we have a museum and few wear watches anymore. Do you? I have almost never worn one. QG either. Now the time is on bikes, cars, microwaves, stoves, televisions and phones. And they are more accurate, and many switch to daylight and standard time without our input.   

And now for an amazing piece of trivia that I bet you never realized. Many clocks have Roman numerals. But look at the four. Instead of IV, it bears the number IIII. I didn't know that either. 

And now, braving the ice cold weather to stare at dead clocks all day, Quilter Girl!

We woke up to sunshine and blue skies, but in the fall that means cold.  It was 35 degrees this morning.  On a motorcycle that is cold!  We didn't have far to go, thank goodness.  The Timex museum was very interesting as was the American Clock and Watch Museum.  It is something unusual, unique to Connecticut.  

We found a back road back to the motel and found ESPN and a local diner.  The diner was Kizl's and were glad that we got there early as it was full when we left.  Kevin had liver and onions which he only eats out, because I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole! It came with twice baked potato and cole slaw.  All was very good as was my fish and chips with homemade tarter sauce.  It was a reasonable price and only complaint was no refills on the soda.  Really?  It was a good find for us.

Now that we are back in the motel, I got my quilting stuff out and am cutting 2" squares so that I can finish my 4 patches tomorrow.  It is tight, it is unusual, but it is fun!

QG 

Tomorrow, Church Surch and the Week in Pictures. I hope. Our Internet is messed up and I have to run to MacDonald's to post. So death to the iPad! And/ or Verizon. But I blame the iPad. It touched it last.