Ticking Along

1974. I met Julia Miller in a Southern California writing class at a place called Everywoman's Village. It was in the forefront of the women's movement. I was not and that's probably why I liked Julia. I took three buses from Manhattan Beach to the San Fernando Valley wending my way once a week, reading War and Peace. I wore a blue flowered hat to shade my freckles. The bus driver on the last part of the trek nicknamed me Little Blue Riding Hood. Julia was a backup singer on the Mac Davis show and had a quality of beauty I didn't see in most of the feminists who were continually ragging me to get "fulfilled." Julia had an old-fashioned modesty. She was beautiful in so many ways. We became friends quickly and corresponded for several years after the class was done. Her father wrote music scores for movies but I don't remember now which ones. One summer, she sent two clocks manufactured by her husband. She told me to pick one and send the other back as she didn't know which I would prefer. One clock was simply a round mirror with the numbers 1 2 3 and then the word, "etc." The other was a square framed in wood, very solid looking which reminded me of a carpenter's holiday with the same number pattern and the word, "etc." I immediately named the round mirror Donna and the square, Daniel. I name everything. I noticed that Donna ran slower than Daniel. I wrote to Julia and said I was having a difficult time deciding but at the moment Donna was across the room from Daniel and seemed to be trying to catch up to him, like Evangeline and Gabriel in the tragic Longfellow poem. Julia replied that I could adjust Donna's pace on the back of the clock but she suspected I wouldn't. She said, "Keep them both! I can't bear to separate Donna and Daniel!!" Everywhere I have moved since, the two clocks have been across the room from each other. I haven't been able to give them away because I, too, can't bear to separate them. They are a symbol of faithfulness and longing, of endurance and dedication. Plucky clocks. I know Julia would be pleased that they accompanied me in my travels and many, many people have heard their story. I'm certain that thirty years after the gift, Julia is still the delightful old-fashioned songstress she was on the day I met her. When I set the clocks to "fall back," I'll be sure to set Donna a little behind Daniel and thank Julia all over again for these stalwart companions.
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...may the blessings of very special gifts be yours....