The first stanza of the lyrics: "My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf;
So it stood ninety years on the floor.
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride,
But it stopp'd-never to go again
When the old man died."
Papa Babe's clock sat idle and uninterrupted for twelve years on top an old humidor in a
bedroom in my house following the death of my mother in 2002. It sat idle and uninterrupted in my parent's house for fifteen years between the death of my father's step-father, whom we affectionately called Papa Babe, and my father's death in 1989.
The 1807 William L. Gilbert Tambour Style Mantlel Clock was bequeathed to my father. My father brought it to his home in Arkansas after Papa Babe's funeral in Los Angeles. Papa Babe's home was in Compton, California, and so had been the home of the clock.
To my surprise Papa Babe's 1807 clock is most likely a 1930 clock. The 1807 date which appears on the inside is the patent date and not the manufacturing date. Like other Tambour Style Mantlel Clocks, it measures nine and a half inches in height and twenty-one and five eights in length. it has a "Bim Bam" strike on the hour and half hour.
I do not know how long papa Babe owned the clock, when it was purchased, or if it were purchased in Arkansas before he moved to California in the 1940s. The clock was mass produced and its sentimental value exceeds its monetary value. It's a family heirloom to me.
Papa Babe, born Aaron Shelton, February 17, 1880 in Tamo, Jefferson County, Arkansas died in Los Angeles on January 28, 1974. He was next to the youngest of seven living children of Cap and Caldonia Shelton. Among his siblings were Griffith, Dock, Matthew, Alice, Allen, David, and Lillie. His father was born in March 1840 in Tennessee. His mother, Caldonia, was born in Africa in January 1844.
His first wife was Miss Eliza Nichols and they had many children. His second wife was my father's mother who called herself "Arned" instead of "Inez Mary" (Williams) Turner. They were married around 1927.
I remember Papa Babe's annual train visits to Arkansas and my fun-filled summer vacations with him, his wife "Miss Tamer," and her grandson, Earl, and Papa Babe's grandson, John Henry, at 510 West Plum Street in Compton. ( a white stucco bungalow with an immaculate lawn).
Papa Babe was quite a dandy. He smoked cigars, was well-dressed, and did not display any gray hair. He was a farmer in Arkansas but went to work for the Pacific Fruit Railroad in California until he retired.
His obituary said he "leaves to mourn, a devoted wife, Mrs Tamer Bolden Shelton whom he married May 2, 1952, 14 children, 32 grandchildren, 69 great grandchildren, and five great-great grandchildren.
Papa Babe's clock sat silent, and uninterrupted for twenty-seven years not because I had forgotten him. Dr. Timekeeper now has it up and running, (since May 22, 2014) "bonging" every hour and half-hour to great joy and delight
in remembrance of one held dear.
(c) copyright 2014
